Myrna Arias and her co-workers were ordered to install a "job management" smartphone app that let their boss track every worker's movement and location back in 2014. She didn't exactly feel comfortable disclosing information like that on the GPS-driven app and erased it from her phone.
Arias claims that upon removing Xora, now named Click Software, she was fired from her sales executive position at Intermex, a money transfer service. The California woman is suing and seeking payment for lost wages and punitive damages on invasion of privacy, unfair business practices and retaliation charges, among others, according to Ars Technica.
Arias removed the app after investigating what exactly it was capable of. She was shocked to read on the company's website that bosses could "instantly see where their employees are and where they have been." After talking to an employee at Xora, Arias approached her boss John Stubits with concerns who, according to the lawsuit, "admitted that employees would be monitored while off duty and bragged that he knew how fast she was driving at specific moments."
Her lawyers said that she met sales quotas during her three-month employment at Intermax, which they believe help prove her claim that she was let go because of her unwillingness to keep Xora on her smarthphone.
Arias claims that she did not have an issue being monitored by her boss while she was on the clock. It was the after-hours tracking that she had an issue with, according to an email her lawyer sent to Ars Technia on Monday:
"The app had a "clock in/out" feature which did not stop GPS monitoring, that function remained on. This is the problem about which Ms. Arias complained. Management never made mention of mileage. They would tell her co-workers and her of their driving speed, roads taken, and time spent at customer locations. Her manager made it clear that he was using the program to continuously monitor her, during company as well as personal time."
Representatives for Intermex have not yet released a statement regarding the lawsuit.
