“Companies have used employee monitoring tools for decades, but with advancing technology, they are becoming more invasive,” Aimee O’Driscoll, a security researcher at technology comparison website Comparitech, said in an email interview.
Be Watched or Get Fired
“This includes recording every time the subject yawns or scratches a sensitive area,” he added. “A driver has at least some right to a semblance of privacy while inside their vehicles.” Employee surveillance by AI is a growing issue. Walmart has patented an AI technology that enables listening to employee interactions with customers at checkouts, O’Driscoll pointed out. Software developer Enaible provides productivity tools based on AI software. Various companies, including Macy’s, use Microsoft’s analytics system, which can monitor employee behavior. Domino’s has used AI technology to check that pizzas are made correctly. “One of the main issues is that when used in the wrong way, lack of privacy can lead to security issues,” O’Driscoll said. “Surveillance data could end up in the hands of criminals, or bad actors themselves could use AI surveillance to target victims.” Biometric face scans result in a mathematical representation of the data subject’s face that can be leveraged to identify and track them anywhere, for the rest of their life, Ray Walsh, a privacy expert at the website ProPrivacy, said in an email interview. O’Driscoll said that AI surveillance should be regulated. “Companies should ideally have legitimate reasons (such as safety) for AI surveillance,” she added. Some states have passed bills that limit and regulate the use of surveillance in the workplace, but federal legislation is lacking, Walsh pointed out. In 2019, the Algorithmic Accountability Act was introduced into the House and Senate, but it was ultimately rejected. A similar act may be introduced this year, and “it is hoped that a Democrat-led Congress and White House may improve its chances of passing,” Walsh said.
Don’t Expect Privacy on the Job
“I think it is hard to argue that an employee has a reasonable expectation of privacy in a company-owned vehicle,” Will Griffin, the chief ethics officer for AI company Hypergiant, said in an email interview. “The bigger concern is that in a few short years, all of these drivers will be replaced by autonomous vehicles. So any debate about driver policy will become a moot point as the fleet becomes fully autonomous.” “While employees have the right to quit or consent to the proposed AI monitoring, they are doing so in the face of an enormous power imbalance,” he added.
