What Is Bossware? Employee Monitoring Software, Explained

Bossware is employee monitoring software that an employer installs on work computers to record what workers do. Typical products log which apps and websites you use and for how long, count active and idle minutes, and turn that into a productivity score. Many also take screenshots on a timer, and some record the screen, log keystrokes or take webcam photos. ActivTrak, Teramind, Hubstaff, Time Doctor, Insightful and Veriato are common examples. Vendors call it employee monitoring software. The Electronic Frontier Foundation popularized the word bossware in 2020, when remote work pushed many employers to buy these tools.

We build Slack Green, which keeps a Slack status green from a server and installs nothing on the work laptop. We write about what employers can see because our users ask. For the full picture of every layer, not only bossware, see how do employers monitor remote workers.

What bossware records

What a given employer sees depends on the plan it bought and the settings it turned on. Screenshots and keystroke logging are usually options, not defaults. Some products show a tray icon, and several offer a hidden mode the employer can turn on.

Bossware examples by type

• • Time trackers with screenshots. Hubstaff and Time Doctor. Often used for contractors paid by the hour. The worker usually starts and stops the timer, and screenshots are taken while it runs.
• • Activity analytics. ActivTrak and Insightful. They focus on app and site use, idle time and team dashboards. Screenshots are optional on some plans.
• • Insider-threat and full recording tools. Teramind, Veriato and InterGuard. Screen recording, keystrokes, file and email rules. Sold to security teams as well as managers.
• • Platform analytics. Microsoft Viva Insights and Productivity Score use data from Microsoft 365. Microsoft removed individual user names from Productivity Score in December 2020 after criticism, so it reports at team or organization level.

Work chat apps are not bossware on their own. Slack shows only an active or away dot built from input inside Slack, and does not see other apps or your screen. The details are in can Slack be used to monitor employees and, for Teams, does Teams track your activity.

Bossware vs security software

Most company laptops run security software such as CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint or SentinelOne. These tools watch for malware and attacks. They log processes, files and network connections and report to IT or security. They do not take screenshots of your work or score your productivity. Finding one of them on your laptop does not mean you run bossware. Data loss prevention tools sit in between: they watch files and messages for sensitive data, and some can capture screenshots when a rule fires.

Is bossware legal?

In the US, monitoring a company-owned computer is broadly legal. New York, Connecticut and Delaware require employers to give written notice of electronic monitoring. In the EU and UK, monitoring falls under data protection law. It has to be necessary and proportionate, and workers must be told. Constant screen recording, keystroke logging and webcam capture are hard to justify there. In 2022 a Dutch court ruled that the US company Chetu could not fire a remote worker for refusing to keep his camera on all day. Your contract and the company's IT policy set the details for your job.

How to tell if bossware is on your computer

Start with the IT policy, which often names the tool. Then look for the agent. On Windows, a quick search of running processes:

# no output means none of these common bossware agents are running
Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.ProcessName -match 'activtrak|teramind|hubstaff|timedoctor|insightful|veriato|controlio|interguard' } |
  Select-Object ProcessName, Path

On a Mac, open System Settings, Privacy & Security, then Screen & System Audio Recording and Accessibility. Bossware needs one of these to capture the screen or input, so it appears there by name. An empty result is not proof, because hidden agents can use harmless names. All eight checks, including the browser and the network, are in how to tell if you are being monitored at work.

What bossware cannot see

Tools that fake input to beat bossware, such as mouse jigglers, are detectable by agents that log input. See can a mouse jiggler be detected before you try one on a monitored laptop.

FAQ

What does bossware mean?

It is a critics' name for employee monitoring software that tracks what workers do on their computers.

What are examples of bossware?

ActivTrak, Teramind, Hubstaff, Time Doctor, Insightful, Veriato, Controlio and InterGuard.

Can bossware see my screen?

Only if the employer turned on screenshots or screen recording. Activity-only setups log apps, sites and idle time, not the screen.

Can bossware read my messages?

Keystroke logging and screen recording can capture what you type and see, including in personal chats opened on the work laptop. Keep personal chats on a personal device.

Is Slack bossware?

No. Slack records messages and shows a presence dot. It does not track other apps, take screenshots or score productivity.