Is IKEA Spying on You?

Swedish-based IKEA–which headquarters its US operations in Conshohocken–is the subject of a damning New York Times article today. Apparently the company spends hundreds of thousands of Euros/Dollars paying private investigators to spy on its employees.

A review of the court records by The New York Times indicates that Ikea’s investigations were conducted for various reasons, including the vetting of job applicants, efforts to build cases against employees accused of wrongdoing, and even attempts to undermine the arguments of consumers bringing complaints against the company. The going rate charged by the private investigators was 80 to 180 euros, or $110 to $247, per inquiry, court documents show. Between 2002 and 2012, the finance department of Ikea France approved more than €475,000 in invoices from investigators.

While the big brother act seems confined to France, this confirms lingering suspicions that there many be something…darker about IKEA than meets the eye.