Brian Cramer has built a growing business helping financial services firms meet their legal obligations by tracking employees’ communications and activities. But, now, demand for such tools is expanding beyond those companies — and for a broader range of reasons.

Smarsh, where he is chief executive, focuses on the tightly regulated and scrutinised financial services sector. It uses algorithms and machine learning to trawl texts and voice transcripts of employees’ calls, chats and other electronic interactions to identify potential insider dealing or illegal transactions.

But many other employers — aided by increasingly sophisticated technology and the adoption of online working — are experimenting with new forms of digital monitoring, whether to improve productivity or to flag concerns over working practices. That is stoking debate over individuals’ employment and privacy rights, as well as their physical and mental wellbeing.