US: A sales executive is suing her employer for privacy violation, claiming she was fired by the company after she deleted an app from her phone that was tracking her movements.
The complaint alleges that Intermex, a money transfer company, monitors its employees even when they are off duty.
Myrna Arias claims she was "severely reprimanded" for removing the APP and was fired a few weeks later.
The company has not responded to the allegations.
According to court documents published on the website Ars Technica, employees were required to install the APP, called Xora, on their phones in April 2014.
Xora is described on its website as a workplace management application that allows businesses to "remotely manage" their employees, tracking their hours and other aspects of their work.
Xora's website states that the app uses GPS to allow bosses to see the location of each employee's phone on a Google Map.
According to what was said at the trial, manager "admitted that employees would be checked even when they were off duty and bragged that he knew how fast she was driving and at what exact times since he had installed the APP in question on her phone."
"She confirmed that she had to have her phone on 24/7 to be able to answer customer calls," the court document states.
Ms. Arias had “no objection” to the monitoring of her work but considered that monitoring her outside of working hours was something that violated her right to privacy.
He likened the APP to a prisoner's ankle bracelet.
