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Washington (AFP)
People returning to work after the long pandemic will find a variety of equipment to improve workplace safety, but which may involve long-term personal and medical privacy.
Temperature controls, distance monitors, digital “passports”, wellness surveys and robot cleaning and disinfection systems are being deployed at many workplaces to reopen.
Technical giants and start-ups offer solutions that include computer vision detection of vital signs for portable items, which can provide early indications of the onset of Covid-19 and programs that keep track of health statistics.
Salesforce and IBM have teamed up on a ‘digital health pass’ to allow people to share their vaccination and health status on their smartphones.
Clear, a technology company known for airport screening, has created its own health pass that is used by organizations such as the National Hockey League and MGM Resorts.
Fitbit, the portable technology maker recently acquired by Google, has its own “Ready for Work” program that includes daily logins using data from its devices.
Fitbit equips approximately 1,000 NASA employees with portable equipment as part of a pilot program that must report daily using various health statistics that will be tracked by the space agency.
Microsoft and insurance giant United HealthCare have deployed a ProtectWell app that includes a daily symptom survey, and Amazon has deployed a “remote assistant” in its warehouses to help employees maintain safe distances.
And a large coalition of technology companies and healthcare organizations are working on a digital vaccination certificate, which can be used on smartphones to show evidence of vaccination for Covid-19.
– ‘Blur the lines’ –
With these systems, employees can be experienced through screens, even as they enter a foyer of the building and monitor them in elevators, corridors and throughout the workplace.
Monitoring “blurs the line between people’s workplaces and personal lives,” said Darrell West, vice president of the Brookings Institution at the Center for Technology Innovation.
“It defends the protection of medical privacy for many different workers.”
A report last year by consumer activist group Public Citizen identified at least 50 programs and technologies released during the pandemic, “marketed as workplace surveillance tools to combat Covid-19”.
The report says that some systems go so far as to identify people who may not be spending enough time in front of a sink to notice that their hands were not adequate.
“The invasion of privacy faced by employees is worrying, especially given that the effectiveness of these technologies in mitigating the spread of Covid-19 has not yet been established,” the report said.
The group said there should be clear rules about the collection and storage of data, with better disclosure to employees.
– A delicate balance –
Employers have a delicate balance when it comes to ensuring workplace safety without compromising privacy, said Forrest Briscoe, a professor of management and organization at Penn State University.
Briscoe said there are legitimate reasons and precedents to require proof of vaccination. But it is sometimes in violation of medical privacy regulations that restrict access to a company’s health data for employees.
“You do not want the employer to have access to this information for work-related decisions,” Briscoe said.
According to Biscoe, many employers rely on third-party technology providers to handle the monitoring, but it also carries risks.
“The use of third-party providers keeps the data separate,” he said.
“But for some businesses, their business model involves collecting data and using it for some meritorious purpose, which poses a risk to privacy.”
The global health crisis has inspired new businesses around the world to seek innovative ways to curb virus transmission, with some of the products appearing at the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show.
FaceHeart, based in Taiwan, has installed software that can be installed in cameras for non-contact measurement of vital signs to screen for shortness of breath, high fever, dehydration, increased heart rate and other symptoms that are early indicators of Covid-19.
Drone maker Draganfly has showcased camera technology that can be used to provide warnings about social distance, as well as to detect changes in humans’ vital signs that could be early indicators of Covid-19 infection.
According to the company, a programmable robot from Misty Robotics, which is also on display at CES, can be adapted as a health monitoring monitor and can also be designed to disinfect surfaces such as door handles.
But there are risks of relying too heavily on technologies that may be unproven or inaccurate, such as trying to detect fever with thermal cameras among moving people, said Jay Stanley, a researcher and private analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union. .
“Employers have a legitimate interest in protecting workplaces and keeping employees healthy in the context of the pandemic,” Stanley said.
“But what worries me is that employers are using the pandemic to systematically pick up and store information as needed to protect health.”
© 2021 AFP