Portuguese 
English 
Spanish 
6 min of reading 
1 comment 
Mass Layoffs At Itaú Expose Digital Surveillance Of Employees Working From Home After Record Profits And Bonus Distribution, Raising Questions About Privacy, Legality, And Productivity Criteria.
The Itaú Unibanco laid off about a thousand employees working from home for alleged “low productivity” measured by software that tracks keyboard, mouse, and browsing activity.
This measure came after the disclosure of a record net profit of R$ 40.2 billion in 2024 and the distribution of performance bonuses.
Experts consulted point to a possible violation of the LGPD and labor laws, while the union refers to over a thousand layoffs at once, and the bank avoids confirming the number.
-
Friends have been building a small “town” for 30 years to grow old together, with compact houses, a common area, nature surrounding it, and a collective life project designed for friendship, coexistence, and simplicity.
-
This small town in Germany created its own currency 24 years ago, today it circulates millions per year, is accepted in over 300 stores, and the German government allowed all of this to happen under one condition.
-
Curitiba is shrinking and is expected to lose 97,000 residents by 2050, while inland cities in Paraná such as Sarandi, Araucária, and Toledo are experiencing accelerated growth that is changing the entire state’s map.
-
Tourists were poisoned on Everest in a million-dollar fraud scheme involving helicopters that diverted over $19 million and shocked international authorities.
In February 2025, Itaú reported to shareholders the results for 2024, showing historic profits.
Despite the favorable scenario, the following year brought mass layoffs of remote workers.
According to a report published by The Intercept Brasil, the dismissals affected entire teams and were based on the so-called “digital activity,” a metric recorded by monitoring software.
In the first quarter of 2025, the bank reported R$ 11.1 billion in profit; in the second, R$ 11.5 billion, both exhibiting double-digit increases compared to the previous year.
Still, employee reports indicate that “digital activity” became the primary evaluation criterion for remote teams.
According to the Union of Bank Employees of São Paulo, Osasco, and Region, more than a thousand people were laid off in this wave.
Itaú, when questioned, did not confirm the total.
Among those laid off, there were workers who had been awarded months earlier by the High Performance Compensation Program, the Prad.
An internal communication sent to the awardees stated: “Ituber, congratulations on the PRAD! This recognition is for your high performance.”
Hidden Monitoring And “Digital Activity” Metric
Remote workers receive corporate laptops with pre-installed software.
According to former employees interviewed, new applications were added over time without detailed explanations.
According to an investigation by The Intercept Brasil, the bank adopted xOne, from the company Arctica, which tracked active screen time, keyboard and mouse interactions, and information on open tabs during work hours.
The prevailing perception among those interviewed is that there was no clear warning about the level of detail in the monitoring.
A contract obtained by the report states that “work tools are monitored” and establishes the obligation to keep Teams open during work hours, but does not specify the collection of clicks, keystrokes, or browsing history.
Itaú stated in a note that monitoring does not exclusively consider mouse and keyboard usage and said it does not capture screens, audio, or video.
Timeline: Four Or Six Months?
At the time of the dismissals, managers informed those laid off that meticulous monitoring had been happening for about six months.
Officially, the bank claims that the analysis by software occurred for four months.
During this period, the institution claims, systematic cases of only 20% digital activity were identified in a day, even registering overtime during the same periods.
The overall average would be 75%, a level that Itaú considers acceptable as it includes breaks and seasonal variances.
What Workers And The Union Say
Ten professionals from Itaú, nine laid off and one still at the company, reported anonymously that they did not receive prior feedback about “low activity” nor a chance to justify any drops.
In an interview with The Intercept Brasil, one of them stated that the system indicated 60% “idleness”, defined as the computer being on without interaction.
Another, identified only as Rodrigo, stated that he preferred to code on his personal computer because the corporate one was slow: “I have the feeling that if I spent the day watching videos on YouTube, I wouldn’t be laid off.”
An audio shared internally by a colleague who remained at the bank reinforces the thesis that the central indicator did not measure work delivery: “the indicator that evaluated people is not a productivity indicator, it is a machine usage indicator. Pure and simple.”
The union president, Neiva Ribeiro, stated that the entity was not informed about the level of detail in the monitoring.
There was knowledge of work schedule control, but not of metrics like click counting or accessed screens.
Itaú argues that everything is provided for in internal policies signed by employees and agreed with the unions.
Robust Results And Top Compensation
The contrast between results and layoffs heightened the repercussions of the case.
In addition to profits, CEO Milton Maluhy Filho appears in media surveys as one of the highest-paid executives on the Brazilian stock exchange, earning nearly R$ 68 million a year.
Meanwhile, more than a thousand workers on the “front line,” according to the union, were laid off based on an automated indicator.
The Intercept also pointed out that some of those laid off had been recognized months earlier by the performance bonus program.
Legal Basis In Dispute: LGPD And Labor Law
According to Filipe Medon, a law professor at FGV Rio and a researcher at the Center for Technology and Society, the LGPD requires a clear and informed purpose for processing personal data, with a mere generic reference being insufficient.
The employee needs to know exactly what data is collected and for what purpose.
Fabíola Marques, a labor law professor at PUC-SP, believes that monitoring of telework is legitimate, especially since it is a relatively recent modality in the country.
However, she emphasizes the need for transparency: the use of software must be communicated clearly and, preferably, included in accessible internal policy for employees.
Professor Alexandre Pacheco, from FGV São Paulo, explains that monitoring programs can capture typing patterns without recording content or, in more intrusive versions, act like keyloggers.
In the case of the mouse, they measure inactivity times, which can be interpreted as idleness even if the worker is reading documents or analyzing code without moving the cursor.
The central point, he says, is how to interpret the collected data.
Bonus, Performance, And The New Digital Filter
In March, the bank paid the Prad, its annual award, recognizing part of the staff for high performance.
For some of these professionals, the celebration was followed, months later, by dismissal for “low digital activity”.
Itaú justified the layoffs by citing a behavioral pattern of low activity during remote workdays.
It also added that for this reason, there were dismissals even of those with good performance evaluations.
Reports from former employees converge on the same point: delivery and results lost weight in favor of the machine usage metric.
Some claimed they would not have been questioned if they spent their work hours with entertainment open in their browser, as long as there was constant movement of mouse and keyboard.
Technology And Responsibility For Transparency
Arctica, responsible for xOne, confirmed the sale of the service to Itaú.
Felipe Oliveira, commercial director of the company, stated that the communication regarding monitoring is exclusive to each contractor: “Each organization defines how and when it informs its employees.”
In other words, the obligation to inform lies with the employer.
Meanwhile, the bank maintains that it does not capture screens, audio, or video and that it does not rely solely on keyboard and mouse.
Still, former employees say they did not know about the level of tracking, which includes active screen time and open tabs.
According to them, there was no opportunity to present technical justifications — for instance, periods of reading or long compilations, common in software development routines.
… [Trackback]
[…] Read More: en.en.clickpetroleoegas.com.br/More-controversy-at-Itau-Bank-fired-a-thousand-employees-working-from-home-even-after-record-profits-of-R$40-billion-and-distribution-of-productivity-bonuses.-Hidden-system-monitored-keyboard-clicks./ […]