How Wearable Tech Could Become ‘Big Brother’ in the Workplace
Monitoring people’s data from popular fitness gadgets can easily cross many privacy and ethical boundaries, risking a backlash from your workforce.
Illustration: Inc; Photo: Getty Images
Wearable tech continues to be one of the Next Big Things in technology innovation, thanks to what many experts expect to be the replacement for the humble smartphone—AR and VR headsets, as well as other AI-powered devices. But wearables like fitness monitors and smartwatches are already part of some workplaces as a useful tool for monitoring employees — providing data on everything from performance to employee well-being. But this sometimes controversial data collection carries some risks, as a new report highlights.
A team of management researchers from the U.K.’s University of Surrey recently did a meta-analysis of previous studies on the benefits and risks of using wearable worker monitoring tech. They found that most workplaces that have deployed wearable tech are using them to track employees’ well-being and health data. The devices were helpful for........





















Toi Staff
Sabine Sterk
Penny S. Tee
Gideon Levy
Mark Travers Ph.d
Gilles Touboul
John Nosta
Daniel Orenstein