Microsoft’s new “Productivity Score” helps employers spy on workers

Mike Ingram




https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/11/30/micr-n30.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws




Microsoft has expanded the analytics provided with its Office 365 suite of productivity applications into a “full-fledged workplace surveillance tool” according to privacy advocates.

The tool, called Productivity Score, allows employers to know the number of days a person was active on Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Skype and Teams over the previous four weeks and on what type of device.

The software gives managers access to 73 pieces of granular data about employee behaviors, all of which is associated with employees by name. Microsoft denies the software is workplace surveillance, but privacy advocates say it most certainly is.

Vienna-based researcher Wolfie Christl tweeted a screenshot of the Productivity Score dashboard, writing that “Esoteric metrics based on analyzing extensive data about employee activities has been mostly the domain of fringe software vendors. Now it’s built into MS 365.”

“A new feature to calculate ‘productivity scores’ turns Microsoft 365 into a full-fledged workplace surveillance tool,” Christl added.

Microsoft claims that the software is not designed as a tool to monitor employee work output activities. A September blog post by Anthony Smith, introducing the product, claimed, “we safeguard against this type of use by not providing specific information on individualized actions, and instead only analyze user-level data aggregated over a 28-day period, so you can’t see what a specific employee is working on at a given time. Productivity Score was built to help you understand how people are using the productivity tools and how well the underlying technology supports them in this.”

In an email to The Register Christl refuted the software giant’s claim, saying the system “does clearly monitor employee activities.” He referenced Microsoft’s own promotional video which shows a list of clearly identifiable users. Posting the video on Twitter, Christl wrote: “Employers/managers can analyze employee activities at the individual level (!), for example, the number of days an employee has been sending emails, using the chat, using ‘mentions’ in emails etc.”

Screenshot of the Productivity Score dashboard

While Productivity Score is not enabled by default, when companies enable it, the software automatically shows data on individual employees. Employers can anonymize user data or opt out of using user-level data at all, but managers have to manually change the settings. Employees have no control over this whatsoever.

The software dashboard provides a so-called peer benchmark, which measures the company against other companies for each metric collected, meaning companies using the product are sending analytics data back to Microsoft.

The documentation for Productivity Score shows the extent of workplace surveillance the software allows. “Person metrics” include data such as the number of hours a person spent in meetings and on email outside of working hours and the number of emails sent. The system also monitors “low-quality meeting hours” which is defined as, the “Number of meeting hours in which an attendee multitasked, attended a conflicting meeting, or attended a meeting that exhibits Redundancy (organizational).”

Employees are assigned an “influence” score “that indicates how well connected a person is within the company. A higher score means that the person is better connected and has greater potential to drive change.” The product documentation states. The software also has a “Diverse tie score” indicating how varied and broad a person’s connections are and a “Strong tie score” recording how many “strong and tight engagements a person has had.”

J.S. Nelson is an associate professor of law at Villanova University who studies workplace surveillance. She told Forbes the software is “horrendous.” “Why are they monitoring people this way and what is that telling people about the relationship they should have with their employers in the workplace? What message are you sending?” she asked.

More invasive employee monitoring tools such as Teramind can capture any user activity, including screen recordings, live views of employee computers, and track emails, keystrokes and even video sessions. These are specialized products and regarded as overly intrusive by many workers.

A Computerworld article from October this year examined how COVID-19 and the move to remote working has spurred faster adoption of employee monitoring software by companies seeking to boost productivity and spy on workers outside of the office.

The article quotes Brian Kropp, group vice president of Gartner’s HR practice. “When COVID-19 hit, we found that within the first month, 16 percent of companies put new tracking software on the laptops of remote employees,” Kropp said. By July that number had risen to 26 percent of companies.

Kropp said that even before the pandemic, companies were moving in the direction of “passively monitoring our employees, listening to them and watching them, and asking them less and less.”

“What the pandemic has done is just accelerate the speed at which that is happening. ... They were going to get there eventually; the pandemic has just accelerated the future into the present,” Kropp said.

The development of Productivity Score now gives companies similar tools without the need to roll out new software. The near-ubiquitous presence of Office 365 in the workplace gives employers ready-made surveillance of their employees.

While the office suite market is dominated by Google with 59.41 percent, Microsoft Office 365 is used by over a million companies worldwide with close to 600,000 companies in the US alone. Under conditions of a global pandemic that has forced the closure of offices around the world and enforced remote working from home, Microsoft is giving corporations the tools to drive up productivity and monitor workers’ activity 24 hours a day.

The metrics provided by Productivity Score will be used by corporations to identify low scoring employees and facilitate more layoffs with increased exploitation of those remaining, under an ever-present pressure to improve their scores.

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8 times David Perdue lied about his stock trades

Judd Legum
Nov 30


In 2020, Senator David Perdue (R-GA) has repeatedly faced scrutiny for suspiciously well-timed stock trades. Each time, Perdue deflected criticism by claiming that his portfolio was managed by an outside advisor who made decisions about specific trades without Perdue's involvement. But an FBI investigation into Perdue's stock transactions revealed that Perdue is lying. This year, Perdue directed his investment manager to sell more than $1 million of an individual stock.

In March, as the pandemic took hold in the United States, Perdue sold stock in Caesars Entertainment, which operates casinos, and purchased shares of Pfizer, which is developing a vaccine. He faced criticism for attempting to profit from the pandemic.

In response, a Perdue spokesperson told CNN that he "had an outside advisor managing his investments" and was "not involved in any day-to-day investment decisions." On a March 20 appearance on Fox News, Perdue had a similar message. "Over the last five years, I have had an outside professional manage my personal finances and I’m not involved in the day-to-day decisions," Perdue said. Perdue repeated that claim in a March interview with Nexstar Media Group.

In April, more details of Perdue's stock trades became available. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that "Perdue’s financial portfolio saw heavy trading during the month of March, a period during which Congress passed three different spending bills to address the spread of COVID-19 and the markets took a turn for the worse." Specifically, a report filed by Perdue on April 5 revealed "112 transactions, including 76 stock purchases costing as much as $1.8 million and 34 sales worth up to $825,000." That was a three-fold increase in trading volume compared to Perdue's monthly average over the previous two years. Perdue again claimed he had no involvement in the day-to-day management of his portfolio. "Senator Perdue has always had an outside adviser managing his personal finances, and he is not involved in day-to-day decisions," a spokesperson said.

In May, Perdue and his wife liquidated their individual stocks with three exceptions. A Perdue spokesperson said the move was intended to "avoid any confusion about their retirement savings." In a statement, Perdue claimed with new specificity that he was not involved in individual stock trades. "Goldman Sachs or... independent fund managers bought and sold individual stocks without consulting with us," Perdue said.

In September, The Daily Beast reported that, between 2017 and 2019, Perdue bought and sold shares of "Atlanta-based financial company First Data" as he "helped to dilute a rule that governed the prepaid debit card industry." The cards are a key component of First Data's business. In response, a Perdue spokesperson released a detailed statement claiming that Perdue had "no influence" on the independent investment managers directing his trades:


As we have told numerous publications in response to repeated false accusations, Senator Perdue and Mrs. Perdue have outside, independent advisers who made these specific trades. The Perdues cannot direct or influence these independent fund managers. These outrageous attacks are based on information that has been publicly available for years. Any accusation of improper conduct is categorically false and nothing more than lies by liberal groups hoping to win an election.

In November, The Daily Beast reported that earlier in 2020, Perdue bought shares in "a company that made submarine parts" shortly before "he began work on a bill that ultimately directed additional Navy funding for one of the firm’s specialized products." He later sold the shares for a significant profit. Perdue's spokesperson responded with another angry statement flatly denying any involvement by Perdue in individual trades.


This has been asked and answered—Senator Perdue doesn’t manage his trades, they are handled by outside financial advisors without his prior input or approval. No amount of lies from liberal media outlets or Democratic political groups will change that fact.

The Perdue campaign later sent a similar statement to the New York Times. It was the eighth time Perdue stated or implied that he had no involvement with individual stock trades. Each of these statements was a lie.

Last week, the New York Times reported that Perdue was the subject of an FBI investigation involving the sale of his stock in Cardlytics, a financial company. The FBI found that Perdue, shortly after receiving an email from Cardlytics CEO, personally called his "wealth manager" and directed him to sell more than $1 million in Cardlytics stock.


Mr. Perdue then contacted his wealth manager at Goldman Sachs, Robert Hutchinson, and instructed him to sell a little more than $1 million worth of Cardlytics shares, or about 20 percent of his position, three of the people said. One person familiar with the inquiry into Mr. Perdue’s trades said that the conversation was memorialized in an internal Goldman Sachs record later obtained by the F.B.I.

The investigation did not ultimately result in charges against Perdue. But the investigation did reveal that Perdue repeatedly and intentionally misled the public about his involvement in individual stock trades. It is unclear how many other stock transactions were personally directed by Perdue.
Perdue's tortured explanation

The Perdue campaign did not dispute the accuracy of the New York Times' reporting. But a Perdue spokesperson attempted to claim the conduct described was consistent with the campaign's previous comments.

The spokesperson told the New York Times that "Perdue doesn’t handle the day-to-day decisions of his portfolio," and that fact is "confirmed by the New York Times reporting." But the New York Times reported that Perdue personally directed a major trade of Cardlytics stock.

The Perdue campaign told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Perdue's direction to sell Cardytics stock in January 2020 was "based on advice he received from his money manager in October 2019." That may be true. But it still reveals that Perdue had significant control over his portfolio. Perdue decided whether, when, and how to follow his investment adviser's advice. In other words, Perdue was in charge.
Perdue ducks the press — and his opponent

What does Perdue himself have to say about revelations that he lied about his control over his stock portfolio? Nothing. Perdue is refusing to answer questions, even from the local media. He limits most of his interviews to friendly hosts on Fox News.
Rick Folbaum @RickFolbaum.@sendavidperdue, how about talking to local media too? My friend @seanhannity can vouch for my fairness. Let's do it! @cbs46 #GASenate #gapol


David Perdue @PerduesenateI’m coming up next on @seanhannity. Tune In! #GAsen #gapol @foxnews


November 19th 20209 Retweets15 Likes

Perdue has "declined an invitation to debate Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff ahead of the January runoff election for his seat." He also dropped out of a scheduled debate before the November 3 General Election, instead opting to appear at a rally with Trump.

In his last debate in October, Ossoff confronted Perdue on his stock trades.


Well, perhaps Senator Perdue would have been able to respond properly to the COVID-19 pandemic if you hadn’t been fending off multiple federal investigations for insider trading... It’s not just that you’re a crook, senator, it’s that you’re attacking the health of the people you represent.

The clip was viewed millions of times on Twitter.

Biden Picks Budget Director Who Pushed Social Security Cuts

Likely OMB nominee Neera Tanden called for cuts to Social Security, saying “we need to put both entitlements on the table as well as taxes.”


Walker Bragman




President-elect Joe Biden will reportedly nominate a White House budget director who has been one of the country’s most prominent critics of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and who has previously backed Social Security cuts.

Biden — who has repeatedly pushed for Social Security cuts throughout his career — announced his selection of Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden as his choice to run the powerful White House Office of Management and Budget. A longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, Tanden touted her think tank’s 2010 proposal to reduce Social Security benefits in 2012, as Biden was pushing for such cuts in the Obama administration.

Tanden’s Social Security push followed the 2010 midterms, during the deficit reduction negotiations between the Obama administration and the new GOP Congress. Republicans drew a hard line but Obama sought a middle ground. Central to the administration’s efforts, which were led by Biden, was a plan called the “chained CPI” that would have slowed the rate at which Social Security benefits increase over time.

Sanders led the fight in the Senate against chained CPI, while outside groups were divided over whether to line up behind the president. Some, like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, vocally opposed the cuts.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank, found that the chained CPI “would cut Social Security retirement benefits by about 2 percent, on average.” The organization, nevertheless, said it would support the concept under certain conditions.

Tanden’s CAP, at the time considered to be the largest liberal think tank in Washington, also supported the idea and was a significant voice in favor of the administration’s plan.

Tanden explained her views in a February 2012 C-SPAN interview. Asked by a caller about entitlement reform, she named Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid as targets for possible cuts, noting that “the president has $300 million in his budget in cuts in Medicare.”

“That comes on top of cuts in Medicare for the Affordable Care Act. So he has put specific cuts in the budget in Medicare,” she said. “And they had savings in Medicaid in the past. I think the question really is: If we’re going to have a deal to address long-term deficit reduction, we need to put both entitlements on the table as well as taxes.”

Tanden became more explicit in her support for cuts to Social Security as she went on:

“We should have savings on entitlements, and the Center for American Progress has put forward ideas on proposals to reform the beneficiary structure of Social Security — some of our progressive allies aren’t as excited about that as we are,” she explained. “But we’ve put those ideas on the table. We think that those are legitimate ideas that need to be part of a proposal where everyone’s at the table. We don’t just ask middle-class Americans to sacrifice. We ask all Americans.”

Indeed, in a report on Social Security solvency CAP released two years earlier, the organization cautioned that “Social Security... is showing its age,” and warned that progressive ideas like lifting the payroll tax “without addressing other problems in Social Security’s benefit design would be a mistake.” One of the solutions it proposed was the chained CPI.

“We recommend that benefits instead be tied to the chained Consumer Price Index, which is sometimes referred to as the ‘superlative’ Consumer Price Index,” the report said. “This index is a more accurate measure of inflation than the current measure. The Social Security Administration’s actuaries estimate the difference will amount to an inflation measure that will show inflation that is 0.3 percentage points lower than the currently used inflation measure.”

In 2016, Tanden wrote on Twitter that chained CPI would “help Social Security’s solvency,” but she said she disagreed with the policy.
Neera Tanden @neeratanden@donaltc Chain CPI, again a policy I disagree with, helped Social Security's solvency, not hurt it. So again, fix your tweet.


February 12th 2016

During the Democratic primary, Biden faced scrutiny and criticism over his four-decade record of pushing cuts to Social Security. The Sanders camp seized on resurfaced videos of Biden promoting cuts and spending freezes over the years. Biden responded to these attacks by supporting an expansion of Social Security and by falsely claiming that he’d never sought to cut the program.

“I've been fighting to protect — and expand — Social Security for my whole career,” the president-elect tweeted in January. “Any suggestion otherwise is just flat-out wrong.”

At the time, Tanden tweeted that she did not see Social Security cuts as part of any Democratic administration’s plans, writing: “This whole debate is a farce.” However, in August, Biden faced criticism from progressives after one of his advisors suggested that in a Biden presidency, spending would be limited by budgetary constraints.

If Democrats manage to win the two Georgia Senate runoff races and retake control over the chamber, Sanders is widely expected to chair the Senate Budget Committee, having served as the ranking member since 2015. The Budget Committee is tasked with approving the OMB director.

Republicans are already warning that Tanden won’t win approval from GOP Senators. A spokesperson for Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, tweeted that she “stands zero chance of being confirmed.”