The Bossware Era and the e-Panopticon: Current Technologies and Legal Challenges

This article comprehensively examines technologies used to monitor employees, highlighting their potential impact and the need for clear boundaries in all work formats. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concepts of power, technology, and labour relations, the authors introduce the e-panopticon to analyse prevalent bossware solutions, scrutinizing their terms of use and monitoring functionalities. The paper also investigates relevant case law and state regulations, proposing guidelines for managing the datafication and quantification of work, along with artificial intelligence tools that enhance productivity. Using a methodology encompassing comparative, retrospective, doctrinal and content analysis, the authors trace the historical development and origins of surveillance technologies for workers, delineate the features of contemporary bossware, and examine bossware websites and their terms of use. This paper fills a gap in existing studies by offering a comprehensive analysis of bossware’s historical development, regulatory framework, case law, and terms of use, presenting a holistic view of bossware.