my coworker carries a hidden recording device everywhere

A reader writes:

I work in higher education, in an area that is particularly under political fire. Due to anti-DEIA legislation, there have been people who have been targeted and fired due to anti-diversity advocacy. Some of the incidents have involved video that had been taken clandestinely and then edited for maximum damage. This has led to people losing their jobs and created a space of paranoia.

I work in an environment that requires collaboration and collegiality in order to complete work. During a casual meeting with a friendly colleague, they mentioned that another colleague showed them a piece of tech that they were now carrying that allowed them to record the people around them without their knowledge. Think Meta glasses but actually more discreet (like an AI transcribing device you can carry in your pocket). This information was *kind of* given in confidence, as the person who told me was the only one would know that our colleague was walking around with it. I hope to circle back to have a deeper conversation about what could be shared once I get your advice.

I walked away from that conversation kind of freaked out. My profession has specific norms around privacy that are definitely in contrast to this technology and our front-facing policies reflect those norms. But our policy norms are not the same as the larger workplace and there are definitely a small but loud minority of people who would try to argue for the use of the tech.

Regardless, I am extremely uncomfortable with the idea of this colleague wandering from meeting to meeting, recording coworkers without their knowledge. The space I work is intensely hierarchical and while I’m not at the bottom of the hierarchy, I don’t actually interact with this person. So I technically don’t have a way to directly make him stop. But I do have strong networks in administration that I could involve. This also brings larger issues about recording colleagues, trust in the workplace and current standards of privacy.

I guess I’m asking, am I overthinking/overreacting? And if I’m not, what should be the next step and what recommendations can I make to try to make sure that my colleagues are aware that we have a recorder in our midst?

You are not overthinking or overreacting. Most workplaces have policies or practices that assume or require that people be informed before they’re recorded, and having someone surreptitiously recording every work conversation they’re involved in (and then having the data sent elsewhere to be processed and stored by AI) raises enormous security issues.

As these devices get more common, employers are going to need to come up with more explicit policies to address their use.

In fact, are you sure that your organization doesn’t have existing policies that would cover this? It’s possible that they do, even if those policies didn’t envision this specific technology.

Either way, though, this is a very, very reasonable thing to raise. In fact, I’d argue that now that you know about it, you have an obligation to raise it (doubly so if you’re in any kind of leadership or senior role). Go to those strong administration networks you mentioned, explain what you’ve become aware of, share your concerns, and ask how to address it.

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