TCS denies employee surveillance claims, says laptop monitoring reports are inaccurate

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has pushed back against reports alleging employee surveillance through monitoring tools installed on company-issued laptops, calling the claims "baseless and inaccurate".

The clarification comes after a Moneycontrol report, cited by People Matters, said the IT services giant had deployed a Digital User Experience Monitoring tool across employee devices, raising questions around workplace surveillance, privacy and data collection.

In a statement shared with People Matters, TCS said it does not monitor individual employee activity and uses technology only for broader network management and security purposes.

"The reports regarding surveillance of employees are baseless and inaccurate. TCS does not track individual employee activity on laptops and respects their privacy. We use tools to monitor macro-level network performance, to ensure security, availability, and enhanced user experience for our employees," the company said.

Company responds after monitoring concerns surface

The response follows a report by Moneycontrol, which cited sources claiming that a monitoring tool deployed on company laptops could provide visibility into application usage and time spent on applications.

According to the report, the deployment had triggered internal discussions around the balance between cybersecurity requirements and employee monitoring at India's largest IT services company.

At the time of the original report, several details remained unclear, including:

• The identity of the software vendor
• The full capabilities of the monitoring platform
• Whether employee-level data was being collected
• Which teams could access the information
• Whether monitoring extended beyond system performance metrics

TCS has now disputed the characterisation of the deployment as employee surveillance and stressed that its focus remains on monitoring network performance at a macro level.

Broader debate around workplace monitoring

The issue has renewed conversations around how organisations deploy digital monitoring technologies as cybersecurity, compliance and remote work management become increasingly important.

In comments cited by Moneycontrol, Pareekh Jain, CEO of research and advisory firm EIIRTrend, said digital experience monitoring tools can help organisations assess application performance, identify technical issues and understand user experience trends.

He also noted that similar technologies can raise surveillance concerns depending on how they are implemented and governed.

The discussion comes as enterprises across industries increase investments in digital workplace tools designed to improve security, observability and operational efficiency.

Focus shifts to transparency and trust

The development also follows TCS's broader investments in digital workplace and cybersecurity capabilities, including its recently announced TCS Workspace Experience Studio, which incorporates observability and digital experience monitoring technologies.

However, Moneycontrol reported that it could not independently verify whether the tool referenced in its report was connected to the company's broader digital workplace offerings.

With TCS now publicly rejecting allegations of employee surveillance, attention is likely to shift towards how organisations communicate the purpose, scope and governance of workplace monitoring technologies. As companies strengthen cybersecurity measures, maintaining employee trust and transparency remains a key consideration.