Does Your Boss Know Where You Are? Or Fired Because You Uninstalled A GPS Tracker?

A woman in California claims that her uninstalling an app has led to her being fired. The reason for uninstalling the app? The 24/7 monitoring of her location using the iPhones GPS (Global position systems allowing for the tracking of a device via satellite in real time).

Myrna Arias worked for the money transfer service Intermex. In a recent lawsuit, claiming as much as $500,000 in damages, Arias claims that the reason for her being fired was due to her uninstalling the job management app Xora from her company issued iPhone. Sounds fair right? You get given a phone with an app to clock in and out of work with and you uninstall it, you would expect some disciplinary issues or even to be fired right?

Arias was fired from her $7,250 per month Job after removing Xora because of the revelation she had about the app’s use of GPS monitoring. Xora allows management to not only see when people sign in and out of work but also allows tracking of the iPhone by its GPS, allowing bosses to check time spent out the office at client locations or even people singing into work from home. The problem that is stated is that Xora does not stop monitoring the phones GPS when you sign out of work, it’s constantly on.

Citing invasion of privacy, Arias claims that her manager made it clear he was using the program to monitor her during not only company time but also in her personal time. Alongside this, it is also claimed that Arias’s manager would opening speak about her driving speed and the roads she took.

Arias likened the app to prisoners ankle bracelet’s and complained about the legality of this invasion of privacy. A discussion which was apparently followed by her being told to “tolerate the illegal intrusion”.

Do you have GPS on your phone? Should it be used for work or do you think that this was a step too far?

Thank you to Arstechnica for their information.