Big brother system tracks errant staff

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Private investigators are using satellite tracking gear to catch staff abusing their bosses' cars or skiving off at work.

The increasingly cheap Global Positioning Systems are fitted to vehicles secretly and used to send location and speed details to laptop computers.

Their use has raised privacy concerns, partly because they can be used for investigations as mundane as spying on wayward lovers.

A major corporate security firm has gone so far as to advertise "a whole range of services" using the systems, including tracking stolen goods, potential kidnap victims or "a speedster sales rep that ran up one too many tickets".

The firm, Icon Group, said in a newsletter that it could install a system in a vehicle in 90 minutes in a make-believe "service check".

Icon security services manager Dave Loader said in a newsletter: "This is one tail a driver just can't lose."

Icon managing director Gary Morrison said the firm started using GPS six months ago and had so far employed them just twice - for VIP protection and for a situation involving "sales". However, he expected their use to grow quickly.

Mr Morrison said he envisaged them being used by employers who suspected their sales staff were secretly working for other firms or claiming pay when not working.

The systems sent information to a computer that traced a "snail trail" on a map with details such as the speed and location of the vehicle at different times.

Private investigators are often hired by people to trail spouses they suspect of being unfaithful.

Mr Morrison said Icon did not do that sort of work and he could think of no other firms using systems for spouse tracking. The Weekend Herald was also unable to find examples in New Zealand.

But the issue is becoming increasingly thorny in the United States. One firm in San Diego, Satellite Security Systems, is tracking more than 5000 vehicles for clients and admits the technology is used by people to track family members.

Mr Morrison said that for privacy reasons his firm would only place the systems into vehicles that were owned by clients, with their knowledge.

Privacy commissioner Bruce Slane said that under the Privacy Act, a boss should tell employees when information was being gathered about them, and what it would be used for.

"When dealing with employees, is your aim to catch them out or make them work for you? Why not tell them the device is in the car so they don't skive off?"