Amazon is piloting a system that sends real-time warnings to workers if they’re standing too close to each other. Some major companies are testing technology to identify workers who have been in close contact with a coworker who tests positive for the coronavirus.
Employers are rushing to use digital tracking technology to reduce virus transmission in the workplace. But privacy experts worry that businesses will start using their newfound surveillance capabilities for purposes far beyond public health. The data could be used to evaluate workers’ productivity, see which colleagues are holding meetings or even flag an employee who unexpectedly ducks out of the office during work hours.
"The risk is that [tracking technologies] become an avenue for more extensive data collection that’s really unconnected with the public health emergency and they will continue on after the public health emergency is over," said Pauline Kim, an employment law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.
The market for privately developed apps is being fueled partly by state and local governments’ struggles to ramp up similar digital tools aimed at identifying potential trouble spots for the virus. Those government-sponsored apps have typically been slow to roll out and have had little buy-in from a public that’s skeptical of having their movements tracked digitally.
Unlike local health authorities, employers have wide latitude to mandate workers use apps or wear tracking devices. Depending on state laws, employers may not even be required to disclose monitoring programs installed on workplace hardware — and may even be able to fire workers who reject the technology. Kim said previous court decisions have left it less clear whether employers can track their workers after hours, so that legal ambiguity might encourage employers to experiment with around-the-clock surveillance while the virus remains a threat.
Privacy advocates warn the tracing apps are a slippery slope toward “normalizing” an unprecedented new level of employer surveillance, even if the devices are only used at the office and don’t follow people in their off-hours.
"Routine tracking of people’s movements [even] on premises is not something we’ve historically ever needed, outside of these circumstances," said Alan Butler, interim head of the influential Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Employers are still figuring out the way forward with little help or instructions from the federal government. Virginia on Wednesday moved to install the country’s first state-wide coronavirus workplace safety rules, which among other things could mandate physical distancing and require companies to quickly inform workers they were possibly exposed to the virus. If other states follow suit, that could juice the burgeoning market for employer-based-tracing apps, which could be worth billions of dollars by some projections.
Public health experts meanwhile worry these workplace apps could further silo data about the virus’ spread. If employers aren’t sharing information with local health authorities or neighboring businesses, they might miss a chance to stamp out the next hot spot. A state-by-state approach to contact tracing — as opposed to one national system — already leaves gaps in efforts to trace and isolate people who have been exposed to the virus.
"Contact tracing in your office doesn’t do you any good when Johnny goes home and exposes the rest of the family," said Georges Benjamin, who heads the American Public Health Association.
The Trump administration has given little guidance on how to deploy tracing apps, but it has said businesses could take other sweeping steps to keep their workplaces free from the virus — like requiring temperature checks and diagnostic tests, as long as those measures are applied equally and don’t target certain employees. The CDC’s vague guidelines for digital contact tracing suggests that apps should at a minimum let users know how their data is being used and stored. But the CDC hasn’t specified whether public health agencies or businesses should be taking the lead on developing these apps — or share their data with each other.
"Any guidance [from government] would be helpful so we can all be marching in the same direction," said Robert Costantini, CEO of Triax, which sells devices helping factory floors and other workplaces monitor workers’ movements in hazardous or restricted areas. The company recently re-purposed that technology so that customers could enforce social distancing.
Companies selling these workplace apps have emphasized that they’re not collecting troves of location-specific data that show where employees are going throughout the day. The PwC app, which the professional services company has been testing internally for the past six weeks, uses a smartphone’s Bluetooth signal to track workers’ movements without capturing real-time geolocation information. That’s similar to “proximity technology tracking” technology Apple and Google is providing to local governments to build their own apps.
When a worker reports that they’ve tested positive or had possible exposure to the coronavirus, the employer — typically someone in human resources — can access app data to identify who was recently in contact with that employee and get them to isolate.
PwC, which plans to roll out its app more broadly in the next two weeks, is requiring employees to download the technology as a condition of returning to the office, though it will allow most to continue working from home. The company, which has fielded interest from small startups to global corporations, isn’t telling clients whether they should require workers to use the app.
"We’ve had some clients who have talked about mandating this for their workforce… [but] if you mandate it and I don’t want to use it, I’m just going to leave my phone at my desk," said David Sapin, who leads the PwC team building the tracker.
At Ford, about 1,000 employees across four facilities for have been testing wristbands that keep track of contacts and buzz if employees get too close, according to a company spokesperson. The pilot program, which isn’t mandatory, has been limited to employees enlisted to help ramp up production of medical devices and personal protective equipment since the coronavirus hit, the spokesperson said.
There are some drawbacks to relying on workplace tracing apps. The apps may not have reliable data if an employee doesn’t have their phone on them all day. They also depend on workers to self-report, and some employees may be reluctant to divulge they may have been exposed to coronavirus if that means being forced into quarantine.
Ultimately, these tracking systems still require "good faith" from employees, said Dennis Kwan, CEO of TraceSafe, which sells wristbands tracking employee contacts. The company, which previously sold technology to help overseas hospitals track patients, has received interest from U.S. businesses, as well as other closed communities like universities and nursing homes, which have been hit especially hard by the virus.
Other companies are turning to technology that doesn’t require any data collection. Amazon, amid scrutiny of coronavirus safety measures in its warehouses, recently announced it is testing cameras and sensors at some locations to ensure employees keep physical distance from one another. Video monitors stationed around the warehouses provide instant feedback on whether employees are keeping at least six feet distance.
That technology won’t help the company keep track of who’s been in close contact with a worker who got infected, but it could help enforce distancing measures that decrease the risk of transmission. The company’s underlying software is open-source, meaning that other companies can use it for free, Amazon said.
Some worry that workers could be fatigued by the proliferation of tracking apps, particularly if those run by local governments begin to have broader take-up. That could lead people to ignore advisories to quarantine or turn off the apps, making it more difficult to quickly identify where the virus may be spreading.
"Anytime you’re asking people to do two or three different things … there’s going to be that administrative compliance issue," said Costantini, the Triax CEO.
Source: politico.com
See more here: news365.stream
