Friend telling me about a job where bosses sit at home watching them w/ camera and microphone to text them tasks/see if they are busy if they look idle?

The fuck? Maybe I’m just lucky to be ignorant to my jobs monitoring me more than i think but… My buddy works a job at something similar to call center (not quite tho, I know those have cameras) and has told me that his bosses work from home 3/4 of the day checking the cameras to give them tasks/ask if they need something to do if they aren’t working enough for them. Additionally, he has said they can pick up audio as the bosses have referenced things that are said while they are not there. Isn’t this last part pushing the lines of legality, or is workplace surveillance really that insane? Having worked places where at worst there were camera’s used solely for security(i.e. if something happened to review footage) at worst, this just boggled my mind! Fuck that.