Dive Brief:
- Wearables such as the fitness trackers and smart watches continue to find their way into the workplace, mainly as a way to measure factors such as productivity, employee health and even lifestyle.
- With their rise, the issue of collecting employee health data is a known risk regarding privacy matters. With that in mind, The Wall Street Journal put together a panel of privacy experts that ultimately concluded that when it comes to employee privacy, employers need to consider several critical factors before integrating this new data-gathering gadget into the workplace.
Dive Insight:
When the Journal asked the panel if employers should be able to require their employees to don wearables, one expert, Chris Brauer, director of innovation and senior lecturer at Goldsmiths, said mandatory use of wearables may eventually be required by employers to remain competitive.
However, John M. Simpson, director of the Privacy Project at the nonprofit advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, told the Journal that "Requiring an employee to wear such a device is an Orwellian overreach and an unjustified invasion of privacy."
Edward McNicholas, co-leader of privacy, data security and information law at Sidley Austin LLP, said that monitoring every variable would be a logistical problem in the quest for a "big data" picture. He told the Journal it would be "far more reasonable" for employers to make a "good-faith effort" to let employees know if a risk to health turns up in their data. In any case, employees should have the chance to decline to have sensitive personal data analyzed for nonemployment reasons.
This panel is the latest set of discussion on wearables, which have seeded debate for some time. As their popularity grows and more workforces turn toward wearables as part of wellness programs, HR will want to ensure they have clear policies and strong rationale in place for the use of such tools.
