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Algorithmic surveillance and workers’ compliance: The role of trust, privacy concerns, and fairness in online crowdwork
Citation. van Zoonen, W., von Bonsdorff, M. E., & van der Heijden, B. I. J. M. (2026). Algorithmic surveillance and workers’ compliance: The role of trust, privacy concerns, and fairness in online crowdwork. Human Relations, 79(7), 795–824. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267251379698
Summary. This three-wave study of European online crowdworkers examines how perceived algorithmic surveillance informs intentions to comply with, alter, or avoid surveillance. It finds that surveillance is associated with lower trust and fairness and greater privacy concerns, which in turn differentiate compliance and resistance intentions. Perceived decontextualization intensifies several adverse legitimacy effects, positioning context-sensitive algorithmic management as a sociotechnical design issue rather than a purely technical control mechanism.
Key claims
- Algorithmic surveillance was negatively associated with trust (B = −.369, p < .001), and trust was positively associated with compliance but negatively associated with alteration and avoidance intentions.
- Surveillance was positively associated with privacy concerns (B = .421, p < .001); privacy concerns were negatively associated with compliance and positively associated with alteration and avoidance intentions.
- Surveillance was negatively associated with perceived fairness (B = −.498, p < .001), but fairness was significantly associated only with alteration intentions in the reported structural model, not compliance or avoidance.
- Perceived decontextualization moderated the surveillance–legitimacy relationships, exacerbating adverse effects on trust and fairness while mitigating the effect on privacy concerns.
- The study distinguishes compliance, alteration, and avoidance as different worker responses, rather than treating acceptance and resistance as a binary outcome.
Evidence & limitations
- Peer-reviewed Human Relations article using three-wave survey data from 435 European online crowdworkers; its longitudinal measurement sequence supports the proposed ordering better than a single-wave survey but does not establish causal effects of surveillance practices.
- The study examines reported intentions in online microtask work, so the findings may not generalize directly to organizational employees, other platform-work arrangements, or observed compliance and resistance behavior.
- The article was published online on 2025-10-16 and in the July 2026 print issue; the source record uses the online-publication year while the citation identifies the final issue.