A growing number of U.S. employers are using artificial intelligence to monitor and score employees' productivity, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has begun enforcing existing consumer protection laws against these practices. According to recent data, 60% of U.S. employers now operate keystroke trackers, webcam monitoring, or AI-driven productivity scoring on their workforce, up from roughly 30% before the pandemic.
In 2026, the CFPB opened enforcement actions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), arguing that third-party "bossware" vendors—such as Prodoscore, Teramind, and ActivTrak—qualify as consumer reporting agencies. Under this interpretation, employers must obtain workers' consent before using such surveillance, disclose any reports used in adverse employment decisions, and allow employees to dispute inaccurate data. Statutory damages for violations range from $100 to $1,000 per incident.
Prodoscore, for example, assigns each employee a daily score from 0 to 100 based on activity metrics. Research indicates that roughly half of companies using such systems never informed their staff. Meanwhile, a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that 68% of workers oppose AI-based workplace surveillance.
The CFPB's move marks a significant shift, applying decades-old credit reporting rules to modern workplace monitoring technology. Legal experts say the enforcement could reshape how companies deploy productivity tracking tools and give workers new rights to challenge automated evaluations.