Sunday, December 6, 2020

This Week in (the other type of) Corporate Espionage


NLRB Accuses Google of Spying On and Retaliating Against Employees

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) lodged a formal complaint against Google, LLC and Alphabet, Inc. (collectively Google) on Wednesday, contending that the company interfered with workers’ rights to organize and retaliated against certain employees for attempting to unify. According to an article by Ars Technica, and a redacted filing consolidating the cases, the NLRB stepped in after several employees made complaints about their former employer’s restrictive and punitive actions. more  

Private spies reportedly infiltrated an Amazon strike... A union is taking legal action.
Amazon could face a court battle with a Spanish workers' union over a report that said private investigators were hired to infiltrate and secretly surveil a strike outside one of its warehouses. According to a 51-page document obtained by the Spanish news site El Diario, private detectives spied on an Amazon workers' strike at a warehouse near Barcelona, Spain... more

Employers Are Spying on Remote Workers in Their Homes
As the Covid-19 pandemic has forced more people to work from home, employers have begun using digital surveillance technology to increase control and maintain productivity. more

Credit Suisse Spy Agency Was More Global, Inept Than Previously Reported
The most amazing thing about Credit Suisse’s CEO-sinking spy scandal isn’t that the bank’s internal KGB existed at all, but how hilariously, spectacularly shitty it was at the job. The most important thing, after all, about a covert operation is not the information it uncovers, but that it remain covert, undetected by those under its watch. Not only were CS’s Keystone Kops unable to achieve this most basic secrecy over and over and over again, they weren’t able to concoct an effective cover-up of their rare successful operations from the world’s most credulous law firm. more

NJ Whistleblower Allies File Lawsuit Against Carpenters' Union Over Spying
Five former employees of Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters have sued the union for allegedly spying on and then firing them over their support of a whistleblower who sparked a federal corruption investigation of the union. more