Companies are busting remote workers who fake online activity. Remote workers have taken the pressures of micromanagers into their own hands by using mouse and keyboard jigglers — but they cannot get away with it for long. Their bosses are now utilizing employee-monitoring software to detect the funny business which often ends with the employee losing their job, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Yes, other tactics can be detected. According to Gartner, nearly 50% of medium to large employers were using electronic surveillance by 2023. Tools like Teramind and Hubstaff now use machine learning to sniff out unnatural patterns in computer activity. Most mouse jigglers, like those sold by Tech8 USA, are no match for these sophisticated algorithms.

How does this work? Simple, these tools can’t mimic the nuanced movements of a human hand and are easily flagged by the software.

… but this raises questions about privacy: Too much surveillance can backfire, with a Glassdoor survey finding that 41% of professionals felt less productive when their work devices were monitored.

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