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This article examines the rise of time-tracking technologies as a dominant form of digital workplace surveillance and their implications for workers’ privacy and dignity. Often framed as neutral tools for enhancing productivity, these systems embed continuous algorithmic oversight into daily work routines, intensifying managerial control and reshaping the employment relationship. Drawing on legal, philosophical, and socio-technical scholarship, the article argues that privacy and dignity are mutually reinforcing values, both of which are undermined by pervasive surveillance practices. Privacy is not treated here as a waivable entitlement grounded in individual consent, but rather as a structural safeguard that protects autonomy and supports workers’ collective identity and rights. Dignity, in turn, requires that workers be treated as individuals rather than instruments of output. Time-tracking technologies challenge both privacy and dignity by normalizing constant monitoring, restricting discretion, and reducing labour to data. The article critiques the reliance on individual consent as a regulatory safeguard, highlighting its inadequacy in the context of structural power imbalances. It calls for recognizing privacy and dignity as non-waivable rights requiring collective and institutional protections. A regulatory framework based on worker representation in surveillance-related decisions is proposed for both European Union and United States settings, with particular emphasis on the EU context shifting oversight away from unilateral employer control. By foregrounding the normative stakes of algorithmic management, the article calls for a measured reassessment of labour law’s role in protecting autonomy and dignity in the digital workplace.
