I run a mouse jiggler app, because my company laptop has an org-level policy that if you're away from the keyboard for more than a minute, the computer locks and you have to log back in. It would activate when I leaned back in my chair to think about a problem. It would activate when I read a complex piece of documentation. I work at home and have no roommates, so this seems like overkill to me. I got sick of it, so I found a workaround. I think it's a bad policy on their part, and I can't tease out much ethical complexity to my decision to ignore it, though of course if they wanted to fire me for it I would have no basis for complaining.
Oh, I coded a mouse jiggler years ago just because I hated the corporate screen-saver. And distributed to lots of people that wanted the same.
Some time after it, they decided computers should hibernate when not actively used, so more people went after the jiggler so they could access their computers at random moments during meetings.
I refuse to accept that any of those (including your case) is an ethical violation.
the most likely scenario (in my mind) is that managers realized some people were not working anymore, checked what was going on, and ended up firing them for not working. the keyboard simulator was just a side thing.
now as regards to the focus of other people in this thread that wells fargo is to blame, my assumption is that the managers are not great either
