Guess folk in Germany finds it way more reasonable if this surveillance is carried out by a flesh-and-blood manager? :) I don't really see how it changes anything of substance, except of being formally non-compliant.
After four years of filling out attendance sheets with hours per every day worked (this is in Germany btw) with monthly reminder from the manager about it I beg to differ. Even though the job (academic research) doesn't have a strong correlation between output and hours spent on site