A group of unionised staff at MindsEye developers Build a Rocket Boy are taking legal action against the studio, claming that management’s installation of surveillance software on their work devices violated data protection laws. The staff, represented by the IWGB Game Workers Union, claim Build a Rocket Boy haven’t been transparent about what data was collected by the software and how it was stored.
As reported by Game Developer, the union say the software – dubbed Teramind – was removed from staff devices in March after 40 employees signed a collective grievance against the company. However, the IWGB claim workers have been left without answers as to what data was collected, how it was stored, and why the software was installed.
“The IWGB Game Workers Union, representing the workers, alleges that BARB’s use of the software violates both data protection laws and the workforce’s basic dignity, exceeding the legitimate remit of monitoring workers’ productivity or safeguarding the company’s security by recording individuals in their homes and without their consent,” the union told Game Developer. “In an internal meeting which was leaked to the press, bosses Mark Gerhard and Leslie Benzies confirmed that the software Teramind had been installed without workers’ knowledge. The programme tracks users’ key strokes, records screen activity and captures microphone audio.”
The legal claims filed by the union in relation to the software are separate to the ones they’ve already filed against Build a Rocket Boy over claims the studio mishandled redundancies last year.
I’ve reached out to Build a Rocket Boy for comment.
Build a Rocket Boy bosses Gerhard and Benzies have claimed numerous times since MindsEye released that its lauch was sabotaged by a third party. “Over the past months we have been working with external partners and legal advisors to investigate the criminal activity that took place around our launch,” Gerhard wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing redundancies last month. “That work has taken far longer than expected, but it has now resulted in overwhelming evidence of organized espionage and corporate sabotage affecting MindsEye. Because this matter is moving toward prosecution, we cannot share the full details publicly yet.”
Regardless of all that hard legal talk, Gerhard’s also made it clear that the studio plan to casually work some evidence of the alleged sabotage into a mission they’ll add to MindsEye at some point.
