Amazon is piloting a system that sends real-time warnings to workers if they’re standing too close to each other. Some major companies are testing technology to identify workers who have been in close contact with a coworker who tests positive for the coronavirus.
"Routine tracking of people's movements [even] on premises is not something we've historically ever needed, outside of these circumstances."Unlike local health authorities, employers have wide latitude to mandate workers use apps or wear tracking devices. Depending on state laws, employers may not even be required to disclose monitoring programs installed on workplace hardware — and may even be able to fire workers who reject the technology.
Employers are still figuring out the way forward with little help or instructions from the federal government. Virginia on Wednesday moved to install the country's first state-wide coronavirus workplace safety rules, which among other things could mandate physical distancing and require companies to quickly inform workers they were possibly exposed to the virus.
Privacy advocates warn the tracing apps are a slippery slope toward “normalizing” an unprecedented new level of employer surveillance. | Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo Companies selling these workplace apps have emphasized that they’re not collecting troves of location-specific data that show where employees are going throughout the day. The PwC app, which the professional services company has been testing internally for the past six weeks, uses a smartphone’s Bluetooth signal to track workers’ movements without capturing real-time geolocation information.
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