Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Previous | Next

• The watchful eye of digital surveillance at work

• Building the perfect quantum camera
• Math alumni appointed to the Order of Canada
• Annual MacKinnon Dinner coming up and other notes

The watchful eye of digital surveillance at work

By Angelica Marie Sanchez. This is an excerpt of an article originally published on Waterloo News.

Have you ever felt like you are being constantly watched over your shoulder at work? Digital surveillance technologies have become increasingly high-tech and complex, leveraging advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor both our physical movements on-site and online activities on company devices. These technologies, while sometimes beneficial in high-risk environments for safety purposes, often undermine worker autonomy and well-being, raising serious ethical concerns about their widespread use in modern work and environments. 

Dr. Krystle Shore (PhD '23), postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies, examines how digital surveillance technologies are used to address social problems like police and public health surveillance. Her particular interest lies in how these technologies are justified by different companies, how they function in practice and the socio-cultural values that shape their use. 

Join Dr. Shore at the next Antagonism and Intimidation in Academia Speaker Series 

On February 27, the University of Waterloo will host the “Surveillance, Privacy and Algorithmic Power in the Workplace” panel discussion as part of the Antagonism and Intimidation in Academia Speaker Series. Dr. Shore and her colleagues will share their research and experience in power imbalances created by emerging technologies in the workplace. Register now.

We asked Dr. Shore to share some of her research on the impact of digital surveillance and the privacy concerns created by emerging technologies in the workplace. 

What are some of the known impacts of today’s employee surveillance systems? 

Employee monitoring isn’t new, and concerns about its impact on privacy have been around for a long time. These concerns still stand, but with recent advancements in AI, current forms of employee monitoring are more sophisticated — and intrusive — than ever before. Today’s monitoring systems go far beyond tracking on-the-job performance; they can monitor employees’ online reputations, physical health, patterns of movement and even their thoughts and emotions.  

What’s more, monitoring is no longer confined to traditional workspaces. Many of these systems extend into employees' homes, personal devices and private communications — especially with the rise of remote work. And while these systems are often justified in the name of improving workplace efficiency and security, the actual evidence supporting these claims is limited. In fact, these systems can create a culture of micromanagement and distrust rather than productivity. 

What we do know is that these invasive surveillance practices come with serious downsides, including increased stress for those being monitored, increased workplace discrimination and power imbalances, and broader concerns around privacy rights, personal autonomy and social equity. Plus, because these systems are relatively cheap and widely available, they’ve become a normalized part of modern work life — sometimes without employees even realizing the extent to which they’re being watched. 

Which workplace groups do you believe would benefit the most from incorporating digital surveillance into their daily operations? 

The idea that surveillance “benefits” a workplace is complicated. There are situations where digital monitoring could be beneficial to employees — if implemented ethically and with strong worker protections.  

For example, in high-risk environments, like jobsites with heavy machinery, tracking employee movement could serve as a safety mechanism rather than a disciplinary tool. However, for this to be genuinely beneficial, workers would need to have a say in how and when they are monitored and what happens with the data that’s collected. 

Most tracking technologies are implemented to boost things like productivity or security. However, if any group stands to benefit, it would be upper management and corporate decision-makers who gain greater oversight and control over employees. Ultimately, though, the question isn’t who benefits from workplace surveillance, but who bears the cost.  

Digital monitoring systems can infringe on employee privacy rights. Constant and invasive monitoring practices also raise serious ethical concerns as they erode worker autonomy and well-being. More importantly, these negative impacts are disproportionately felt by employees from racialized communities, who tend to face heightened scrutiny under workplace surveillance systems compared to their non-racialized co-workers. 

Read the full Q&A on Waterloo News

Building the perfect quantum camera

This is the latest in a series of articles published in the 2025 Global Futures: Innovation Update.

Imagine a camera that doesn’t miss anything, one sensitive enough to detect individual photons of light. That’s the goal of Sarah Odinotski and Jack DeGooyer, two PhD researchers from the Institute for Quantum Computing and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The potential of their ambitious project was underlined when both were awarded prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships for their distinct but complementary research. 

Odinotski is part of the Quantum Photonic Devices Laboratory team, led by Dr. Michael Reimer. Her work focuses on designing sensors capable of detecting single photons, the smallest unit of light. Working in the same laboratory, deGooyer hopes to build a fully functioning camera made up of these precise sensors.

From quantum computing to astronomy, the applications of this technology are incredibly diverse and consequential. One of the team’s motivations is to use their cameras for medical imaging. They hope their system will allow more accurate detection of cancerous cells for faster diagnosis and treatment.

​The exciting possibilities of this technology were recognized by the two Vanier awards, which highlight the value of collaboration across research disciplines to enable new discoveries. “It’s an affirmation of the research and the different philosophies that both Sarah and I bring to the project,” deGooyer says.

Read the rest of the story on the Global Futures website

Math alumni appointed to the Order of Canada

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Mathematics website.

On December 18, 2024, Math alumni and philanthropists Michael Barnstijn (BMath ’82, MMath ’85) and Louise MacCallum (BMath ’85) were named Members of the Order of Canada. The Order of Canada, which is administered by the Governor General’s Office, is Canada’s second-highest honour, after the Order of Merit.

Barnstijn was the first employee at Research in Motion (now Blackberry) in 1985, and MacCallum became a software engineer there soon after. The two began a personal relationship while working there, and after leaving their positions at Research in Motion in the late 1990s, they have dedicated their attention to supporting arts and the environment locally, nationally and internationally.

MacCallum and Barnstijn have been recognized for their dedicated and purposeful philanthropy. Through discreet donations totalling more than $80 million, they have supported various causes, notably sustainable environmental and cultural initiatives. Committed volunteers, they worked with the founding groups to start the Musagetes Foundation for the arts, the rare Charitable Research Reserve urban land trust, and THEMUSEUM in downtown Kitchener. They have also been generous supporters of the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, helping it relocate to a former silk factory in downtown Cambridge.

“Everyone should have access to nature and artistic creativity as a fundamental part of their lives,” says MacCallum. “Michael and I found our interest in math to be very compatible with an interest in the arts.”

Barnstijn echoes the sentiment, emphasizing that their work has always been creativity-focused, collaborative and in partnership with community members. “In one way or another, that’s what Louise and I have tried to further,” he says. “Mostly it’s been accomplished by funding a variety of arts organizations that add immeasurably to the quality of life in our communities and, in the case of rare and Musagetes, finding truly creative leaders and giving them the freedom to put their ideas into practice.”

The rare Charitable Research Reserve, led by Dr. Stephanie Sobek-Swant, stewards over 1500 acres of land in Waterloo and Wellington. It combines international ecological research, artistic inquiry, Indigenous knowledge-keeping, and hands-on environmental education.

The Musagetes Foundation, led by Shawn Van Sluys, is an “arts-based organization that features a robust program of initiatives in Guelph while sustaining extensive, long-term projects internationally.” For the past two decades, the foundation has worked with more than 300 Canadian and international artists through residency and fellowship programs, festivals, gatherings, publications, and partnership initiatives, including the ArtsEverywhere Festival.

“We have always pitched in where we could to support Stephanie and Shawn,” Barnstijn says. “But they have assembled an amazing team of staff and volunteers and it is their leadership that is responsible for the many accomplishments that Louise and I are getting credit for with this Order of Canada.”

“The community is also to be recognized in this process,” MacCallum adds. “Their response to rare and Musagetes has been a big factor in the success of these organizations.”

Annual MacKinnon Dinner coming up and other notes

The UWaterloo History Society and the History department are hosting the annual MacKinnon Dinner on Friday, March 14 at St. Jerome's University.

The dinner is held annually in honour of the late Father Hugh MacKinnon, a Professor of Medieval History in the History department. This year's MacKinnon Dinner lecture will be given by Dr. Rebecca MacAlpine and is entitled Shaming and Blaming: The Process of Proving Paternity in Seventeenth Century Somerset. 

To purchase tickets, please visit the website. Tickets for students are priced at $25 and non-student tickets are $35. Tickets will be on sale until Thursday, February 27. For more information on Father MacKinnon and this annual event please visit the History Department's website.

The event will be held on Friday March 14 in the SJ2 Academic Centre Atrium at St Jerome's University. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. with opening remarks starting at 5:45 p.m.

The Noon Hour Concert series continues today with Something Shiny.

The Kestrel String Quartet presents "Musical Bounty", a program that highlights the versatility and expressive range of the String Quartet. Canadian composer Carmen Braden's The Raven Conspiracy is the feature piece. It uses musical language to depict the behaviours and mythology of these intelligent and curious birds, from their fascination with shiny objects to their Indigenous creation story.

The event takes place at 12 noon today in Conrad Grebel Chapel. Admission is free.

There's still time to make room in your calendar for a little Virtual R&R: the next VR for Workplace Wellness drop-in session will be held in the Learning Lab on the third floor of Dana Porter Library on Thursday, February 27 from 12 noon to 2:00 p.m.

"This initiative has placed three Meta Quest 2 head-mounted displays (HMDs) in each of the Dana Porter and Davis Centre libraries," says a note from the Conflict Management Office, one of the sponsors of the VR for Workplace Wellness program. "The headsets have been preloaded with the Nature Treks VR app and are available for all University of Waterloo staff (part-time, full-time, casual, and student staff) to sign out for one-hour intervals at the circulation desk. Nature Treks VR allows you to explore a wide variety of natural settings including tropical beaches, green fields, underwater oceans, and outer space. Within these spaces you can interact with more than 60 different animals, and change the weather and time of day."

If Thursday, February 27 doesn't work, upcoming sessions are scheduled for Thursday, March 27 and Wednesday, April 24.

Employers hosting Employer Information Sessions this week and next week include MTE Consultants, Tesla, EA, Government of Canada, Criteo, Alstom, CIBC, Aven, Susquehanna. Make sure to register through WaterlooWorks and check the calendar for any updates. ​

​