Q. Is this really as harmful as you think?
A. Go to your parents house, your grandparents house etc and look at their Windows PC, look at the installed software in the past year, and try to use the device. Run some antivirus scans. There’s no way this implementation doesn’t end in tears — there’s a reason there’s a trillion dollar security industry, and that most problems revolve around malware and endpoints.
The surveillance would be a double edged sword. If they were to be hacked, all sensitive information that was going through their PCs could be compromised.
They will convince themselves it can’t be compromised. Never under-estimate the stupidity of middle management.