Employers Expand Worker Tracking; Data Shared With Brokers

Thousands of American employers are using digital tools to monitor where workers are, how fast they finish tasks and what they say — and some of the most common programs have quietly passed worker data to outside companies.

An investigation by Vanderbilt University, Northeastern University and the University of California at Berkeley found that some of the most widely used workplace monitoring programs shared names, email addresses and other personal worker data with hundreds of outside data brokers and technology companies without clearly disclosing the practice.

The Associated Press reported Thursday on the spread of the tools, which can track locations, collect data on task completion rates, and access the cameras on work-issued smartphones and laptops — reaching into workers' own homes.

How Far It Goes

Pharmacist Lannie Duong said her employer at a medical clinic tracked the length of her phone calls and appointments, then questioned in performance evaluations why she spent so long with each patient. Her work involved patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, and she often used interpreters for patients with limited English.

"Everything was counted. How many minutes you're on the phone. The minutiae of it was ridiculous," Duong said. "We're just tasked to do what feels like the impossible."

Duong said the pressure left her feeling "not trusted, not appreciated, almost completely hopeless." She went on medical leave, began volunteering with other pharmacists to organize a union, and says her employment was terminated after the leave.

Arianna Anaya, teaching a college writing class, discovered that an administrator was reading the papers her students uploaded to the school's learning management software along with the comments she wrote on them. The students often wrote about intimate subjects, including abuse, eating disorders and family trauma.

"The school essentially used the online learning system to allow administrators and staff to read student work that was often immensely private and personal, something we were specifically told students should not know about," Anaya said. A colleague who printed out her comments criticized her casual tone with students and accused her of not sticking to the syllabus. Her teaching contract was not renewed a few months later, though she says she does not know the exact reason.

In warehouses, scanners on conveyor belts monitor the pace of workers to make sure they inspect hundreds of items an hour.