A company spokesperson said: “Wells Fargo holds employees to the highest standards and does not tolerate unethical behaviour.”

Wells Fargo has been notoriously inconsistent.

I'm going to assume the workers were being over-monitored, and disallowed from normal human activity until this is specifically ruled out by additional reports.

When a company is abusive and toxic to the point workers turn to surveillance evasion, it not only ruins that job, but makes the employee wary of future jobs. It causes social harm.

Yes, it is typical, but requiring employees to hand over personal Facebook account passwords used to be typical until the requirement was outlawed. Employers often act in bad faith, and workers commonly have to tolerate it. So distrust of companies, and of Wells Fargo in particular, is well earned.