Workplace surveillance expands through AI and digital tracking

The use of digital tools to monitor employee location, productivity, and communications has expanded significantly since the coronavirus pandemic. Employers are utilizing advanced artificial intelligence and data science to create detailed dossiers on staff, which can be used to predict behavior or penalize workers.

Common monitoring methods include tracking task completion rates, monitoring warehouse worker speed via conveyor belt scanners, and accessing cameras on company-issued smartphones and laptops. In some instances, administrators have reviewed private comments made by professors to students, and managers have used tracking data to limit the time professionals, such as pharmacists, spend with patients.

An investigation by Vanderbilt University, Northeastern University, and the University of California at Berkeley revealed that many popular surveillance applications share personal worker data, including names and email addresses, with hundreds of third-party technology companies and data brokers without clear disclosure. Experts note that workers with the least market power are often the primary targets for these intrusive data collection practices.