Myrna Arias, has filed a lawsuit against her former employer Intermex, a money transfer service in Bakersfield, for invasion of privacy, retaliation, and unfair business practices and is seeking damages in excess of $500,000. She claims she was fired for uninstalling an app from her official iPhone, that let her boss, John Stubits, track her movements 24 hours a day.
Xora, the workplace management, allows an employer to monitor workers who aren’t in the office, and is able to see the location of every on-field worker on a Google Map to show where they have been, the route they have driven and where they are now.
The lawsuit alleges: “After researching the app and speaking with a trainer from Xora, Plaintiff and her co-workers asked whether Intermex would be monitoring their movements while off-duty. [Arias boss, John] Stubits admitted that employees would be monitored while off duty, and bragged that he knew how fast she was driving at specific moments ever since she had installed the app on her phone.
“Plaintiff expressed that she had no problem with the app’s GPS function during work hours, but she objected to the monitoring of her location during non-work hours and complained to Stubits that this was an invasion of her privacy. She likened the app to a prisoner’s ankle bracelet and informed Stubits that his actions were illegal. Stubits replied that she should tolerate the illegal intrusion.
“He confirmed that she was required to keep her phone’s power on ‘24/7’ to answer phone calls from clients. Stubits scolded Plaintiff when she de-installed the app in late April 2014 in order to protect her privacy.”
“The app had a ‘clock in/out’ feature which did not stop GPS monitoring, that function remained on. This is the problem about which Ms. Arias complained. Management never made mention of mileage. They would tell her co-workers and her of their driving speed, roads taken, and time spent at customer locations. Her manager made it clear that he was using the program to continuously monitor her, during company as well as personal time,” Arias’ attorney, Gail Glick said.
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So her boss was stalking her through the app.
No way I’d put up with that, the man should be fired and proscuted too, since he was committing a crime by stalking these employees.
That’s just life: Bosses of larger corporations are mostly power-hungry manw-hores who seem to think that your civil-rights are “optional” when you’re under their employment.
I don’t know if he thought himself to be the next NSA director or simply an idiot, but he sure is going to lose this lawsuit.
she is completely right, the defined line between work and life is being slowly eradicated, if you are not getting paid then these clown bosses have nothing to do with you and this new generation needs to enforce that mentality now, more than ever, until I invite you in you have no rights in my life after working hours
It’s her phone not her bosses. She can have whatever apps on it she wants. I would have done the same thing as Myras. I do wonder though, couldn’t she just turn off the gps of the iphone?
She is being stalked on her off-hours. Perhaps employees in this situation should get their own cell phones and leave the employer’s phone on 24/7 but stationary, ie on the kitchen table.
It’s a company phone. She is required to have the phone charged and answer any customer calls 24/7.
Simple way around this……at 5:00 pm everyday you forward the number to your personal phone and leave the works phone at home.
Problem solved.