Pandemic-era monitoring tools follow workers into their homes

AI-powered tracking now generates worker ‘dossiers,’ researcher says

Digital tools adopted during the coronavirus pandemic continue to follow U.S. workers into their homes, tracking locations, productivity, and communications on work-issued devices, according to an Associated Press report by journalist Cathy Bussewitz.

Among the examples documented in the report: college administrators read an adjunct professor’s comments to students on personal essays. A manager told a pharmacist to spend less time with patients after tracking the number and length of her appointments. Scanners on a warehouse conveyor belt monitored the pace of workers to ensure they inspected hundreds of items per hour.

Wilneida Negrón, director of research and policy at Coworker, a nonprofit that helps workers organize to improve working conditions, said the AI-enabled tools mark a shift from the monitoring employers have long practiced. “Employers have always monitored workers, but recent advances in artificial intelligence and data science enable them to create extensive data sets or ‘dossiers’ that can be used to punish workers or attempt to predict employee behavior,” Negrón said.

A vast array of digital tools still track locations, collect data on task completion rates, and access cameras on work-issued smartphones and laptops. The monitoring extends into workers’ homes, raising concerns about how much privacy employees have given up.