The pandemic forced employers to think hard about how much they trust their staff. Vast numbers of companies had to implement remote working last year at a scale they would never otherwise have contemplated. Many were pleasantly surprised. They discovered they could rely on employees to get on with their jobs without slacking. Indeed, studies suggest that — far from taking it easy — home workers are putting in more hours than ever.

But other employers couldn’t let go. Daunted by the thought of losing visibility over staff, they panic-bought software to surveil them, much of which claims to use artificial intelligence to monitor infractions and measure productivity. There is now a booming market in cloud systems which promise to keep remote workers in line. Some, such as Controlio, offer a “stealth mode” which makes the system “completely invisible for the user — no icons on the bar or processes in Task Manager.” (Controlio told me it also offers a “GDPR compliance mode” which limits data collection, and an option to warn employees they are being surveilled.)

With AI spreading quickly but quietly into people’s homes, it is timely that the EU published draft rules last week on how it should be used in a range of different settings. The proposed rules say that AI used for “the recruitment and selection of persons, for making decisions on promotion and termination and for task allocation, monitoring or evaluation of persons in work-related contractual relationships” should be classed as “high risk”. Providers of “high risk” AI systems will have to meet certain obligations, such as giving clear information about how it works, using high-quality data sets, and allowing for human oversight.