Keyboard strokes

You have to wonder how a company survives if it needs software to notice someone does nothing.

Also its not like humans work 100% of the time. You might need to discuss something, or be away from a desk for a while.

OP mentioned keystroke loggers there at the last bit. Yes these certainly exist. But I doubt most companies actively use these, only in very specific type scenarios and users would have to be informed of their use where GDPR applies. Hackers use them to gain usernames, passwords etc. I think companies outside the GDPR governance area might use them more.

This is the type of thing some people have been using, check Amazon they have loads of different ones. Before Covid I'm not sure they even existed.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VAYDEER-Jiggler-Prevent-Function-wiggler/dp/B08V4L6H7S/

The early ones just moved your mouse on pixel up and down or left an right at intervals which fooled monitoring software into reporting that the user was using their computer. I've no idea if this was the reason for the sacking the OP refers to but is one possibility. Just as the "jigglers" have got more sophisticated I suspect so has the monitoring software.

They most likely did. They fired them because they weren't doing anything but their computers where showing as being in use all the time. Doing nothing is a disciplinary issue which needs to be resolved with the manager monitoring the employee for a prolonged period, faking working is gross miss conduct and embezzlement which can be resolved by firing.

Most managers have a good idea of what their subordinates should be able to accomplish in a day's work

That's an optimistic take, I'd say; certainly most managers should know how to gauge their direct reports' productivity without resorting to ridiculous nonsense like activity monitors or keystroke loggers or whatnot, but that assumes that said managers are competent, and there are a lot of utterly useless 'Peter principle' managers out there.

It would be very unusual these days that end users would have admin rights to install software, or that USB slots would be open for hardware like this.

It would not be legal, unless;

• they had very good reasons for doing so, and
• they told you in advance that they were doing it, why they were doing it, how they would use the information, how long they would retain it.

With security concerns all companies will monitor endpoints, that is the best point of access for hackers etc. They won't bother monitoring every website a person visits as that is far too much data. They will have a bad list which would be the normals which will set off a trigger if you visit or depending on the technology will just block the user

THey will also monitor what software you install on the system, again to make sure nothing dodgy and also from a license point of view they need to make sure the company is not using software which they are not entitled to use

These people would of had to install the software on the system, fairly easy to run a command and see what every user has installed on every device. You could do it across an entire company in a few mins and then just limit the software to non approved, in a few hours or less you could identify every user in the company and the ones who have installed non standard products

Also by the way the claims of people working abroad while supposed to be working in Ireland, all of that can be found very easily with modern security software, in fact most packages will inform the company that someone has logged into your PC from a different location to the one they normally log in and raise it as a security alert for the SOC to review

Any MNC will have this as basic these days, most Irish companies as well, the only ones who didn't seem to be the HSE

Its game over if it gets hacked.

We are monitored on absolutely everything in my workplace.

If we make or receive any call, calls are recorded.

The company also monitor and record all of our screen time on company computers.

I wasn't informed of the second part until months after I started the job. I think they really should have told me at the start of the job.

Companies are monitoring so much now.

Any employer that is collecting this information would need to have a clear privacy policy published showing what information they are collecting, what is their legal basis for collecting the information, where it is being stored, and how long it is being retained.
You also have a right to get a copy of any data they have about you.