Barclays in probe over spying allegations

Spying on staff - the accusation against Barclays which has led to a probe being launched by the UK's privacy watchdog.

Britain's Information Commissioner's Office announced on Sunday (Aug 9) it was investigating the bank.

Earlier this year, Barclays said it was changing a system that the bank had been piloting, which tracked how employees spent their time at work.

That after critical media reports accused the bank of spying on its staff.

The ICO said on Sunday a formal probe was ongoing but it could not say when the investigation would conclude.

It did however say: "People expect that they can keep their personal lives private and that they are also entitled to a degree of privacy in the workplace,"

In February, Barclays said it was changing how it used the Sapience software so it would now track only anonymous data.

According to its website, the tech tracks employee productivity by monitoring their computer usage.

Such systems are becoming increasingly common among banks and other financial firms, as they monitor for unusual behaviour that could indicate misconduct.

In 2017, Barclays faced widespread criticism when it rolled out a system which tracked how long people spent at their desks.