Are health monitoring apps an invasion of privacy?

Health monitoring apps and devices may reduce the risk of an epidemic, but do employees see these technologies as an invasion of their privacy?

Surendar Magar, who is one of the leading entrepreneurs in the field of wireless Internet and digital signal processing technology used in smart phones, and assumed the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of the "Live Signals" company in California: "I spent a large part of my life searching for ways To convert devices, from computer to phone, to wireless.

12 years ago, Magar, when he was on his sick bed in the hospital surrounded by many devices and equipment to monitor vital indicators, asked about the possibility of creating new devices that would allow doctors to follow up on the health status of their patients even after they were discharged from the hospital.

After ten years of research, Life Signals has developed a thin, disposable tape that monitors a range of vital signs via a biosensor built into the tape.

The patient taps this tape to his chest to record data, including breathing rate, body temperature, blood pressure, body position, and electrocardiograms, the electrical signals produced by contractions in the heart wall.

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Before the Corona epidemic, Magar's main goal in creating this adhesive tape was to allow doctors to monitor patients remotely and use the data it sends to detect any possible warning signs. But in recent months, that duct tape has caught the attention of an unexpected source of customers: the corporate world.

After the pandemic forced many companies around the world to adopt the remote work system at an unprecedented rate, large companies are looking for ways to allow their employees to return to work environments safely. Many companies liked the idea of ​​tape, which measures temperature, to monitor the health of their employees remotely.

Magar says that companies' interest in duct tape was surprising to Life Signals, which is now cooperating with eight companies to launch programs to monitor the health status of employees in companies. These companies intend to use adhesive tapes to detect early signs of symptoms of the emerging corona, and direct employees who show symptoms to stay at home.

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The tape sends the data to an app on the employee's phone, which then sends it to the company's occupational health department. “Even if you have 1,000 employees around the world, you can monitor their health status and how safe it is for them to return to work. This is to reduce the risk of transmission from symptomatic employees to others,” says Kim Ramisa, Life Signals Marketing Director.

This type of employee health monitoring is part of a new trend by companies to monitor their employees, with the aim of driving performance. Reports indicated that the epidemic has led to an increase in stealth eavesdropping on employees, as employers use monitoring techniques to ensure that employees do not waste time working from home.

The Pricewaterhouse consulting firm, for example, has developed facial recognition technology specifically designed to record the time an employee is away from a computer screen. The company stated that this technology aims to help investment banks to meet their obligations while their employees work from home.

But after the emergence of technologies to monitor the health status of employees, isn't it possible for companies to also use them to collect data on employees in the future, even after the epidemic recedes?

New ways to monitor employees

Many large companies have tried before employing wearable devices in programs to maintain employee health. British Petroleum in the United States was one of the first companies to develop a program to provide bracelets " Fitbit" for employees to collect information on their fitness, sleep quality, fatigue level and location.

However, after the Corona epidemic, researchers conducting studies on the relationship between capitalism and individual rights raised concerns about the spread of health monitoring systems for employees in companies through complex devices worn by the employee. “More companies are likely to put in place policies that allow them to monitor the health and fitness of employees,” says Evan Manoja, a researcher at the University of Oxford who studies changes in monitoring methods in work environments.

These policies have some advantages, including preventing the spread of disease among employees, during the flu season, for example.

The human resources team may use the data it collects from the devices employees wear to devise health strategies that are tailored to each individual employee, as in the case of Expo 2020 Dubai, where 5,000 construction workers participate in a program to use “Wop” bracelets To monitor cardiovascular health and sleep disorders. The data collected from the wristbands helped determine precautions that workers with health problems, such as an altered heart rate, should take.

Employees in these programs that monitor long-term health and fitness data may reduce the risk of lifestyle-related diseases, such as obesity and diabetes. This data may help companies develop training programs for employees to urge them to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and this will benefit the company, as sick leave will be reduced and the company will save a lot of expenses.

Chris Brawer, Director of Innovations at the Institute of Management Studies, University of London, says: “The use of wearable devices to monitor health has multiplied, and the data collected from these devices may play a role in nutrition programmes, behavioral or cultural change programmes, and leadership training.”

Privacy Breach Risk

However, some people believe that using their data in this way constitutes an invasion of privacy and a violation of ethical standards. And the San Francisco-based non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that the more information companies collect about their employees outside of working hours, the more control they have over their lives.

This may bring to mind the first form of control over the health of employees at the turn of the twentieth century. In 1913, the Ford Motor Company faced the problem of accelerating labor turnover in its factories. She believed that the solution is to double salaries to keep employees. But it set a strict condition for employees to get a higher salary, which is to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Henry Ford established the Department of Social Affairs to monitor workers' compliance with the rules. Investigators visited workers' homes without warning and collected information from neighbors, and the company reduced the salaries of employees it deemed did not adhere to health standards.

In the 1920s, the company was forced to end this program, after it was unable to provide high salaries due to competition with other auto factories, and workers' protests increased over the company's intrusion into their private lives.

This case continues to exemplify the negative consequences of monitoring the health status of employees. And while a 2017 poll indicated that 57 percent of working adults would not mind wearing these devices to monitor their health and send data to the company as long as it provided it to them for free, some researchers believe that excessive monitoring and verification of data will have negative consequences.

Manoja points to other ethical implications of collecting and analyzing employee health data, for example, that the company may deny promotion or retirement opportunities to employees it deems to have health problems.

Manoja says that management's ability to monitor employees has reached unprecedented levels in many companies, which has led to doubling the tasks assigned to employees, and thus exacerbating stress, psychological pressure and psychological burnout.

With the emergence of health monitoring devices for employees, Manoja says: "Companies no longer only monitor employee performance, but also pressure employees to adopt a healthy lifestyle and to be physically fit. Employees' bodies have also become a concern of companies."

In Manoja's view, this not only entails a violation of employee privacy, but also raises the problem of "turning employees into mere objects" that can be utilized to the maximum extent possible.

However, some laws prevent employers from exploiting employees' health data, such as the recently passed information protection laws. If the employer sells health data about the employee, for example to an insurance company, he may be required to pay exorbitant compensation.

"The sale of health data is contrary to the Information Protection Act as well as the confidentiality of information laws," says Oran Kyazim, a data protection consultant at the "Bird & Bird" law firm, and indicates that employers may be subject to serious penalties in the event of misuse of this data or dealing with it in any way without notifying the employees. The company is unlikely to force employees to provide health data, or to require them to participate in health-monitoring programs against their will.

The problem, however, is that employees who refrain from doing so in these programs may experience difficulties in the work environment.

Crossing the Lines

Some workers in the field of information privacy believe that the solution to prevent employees' health monitoring programs from breaching ethical standards is for institutions to contract with agencies specialized in managing employees' health information, provided that these agencies abide by the rules Strict information privacy, dealing with employees directly to urge them to change their lifestyle.

"Best practice is that employers don't share information about employee health, and that companies have strict data privacy policies in place," says Mary Henderson, vice president of innovation and marketing strategy at Blue Health Intelligence, a data analytics firm in Chicago. .

But the coming days will prove how willing companies are to adhere to best practices. With high unemployment rates, companies that want to implement health monitoring programs for employees are likely to encounter no opposition from workers.

"At a time when there is intense competition for jobs, employees who want to keep their jobs at any cost will not bother opposing these programmes. Their main concern now is not keeping their health data private," says Manoja.

You can read the original article on BBC Worklife