Washington (AFP)

Temperature controls, physical distancing observers, digital health "passports", wellness surveys and robotic cleaning systems have flourished in the workplace since the pandemic as companies seek to bring back their health. office workers.

But these tech gadgets could pose risks to long-term privacy and medical confidentiality.

Tech giants and start-ups offer a host of solutions that include visual detection of vital signs by computer, that of portable devices that can give early indications of the onset of Covid-19, not to mention the multiple applications that monitor health parameters.

Salesforce and IBM have teamed up to launch a "digital health pass" allowing holders to share their vaccinations and health status via their smartphone.

Another system, invented by Clear, a start-up known for airport screening, created its own health pass already in use by the American National Hockey League and MGM Resorts.

Fitbit, the specialist in connected objects and owned by Google, has a program called "Ready to work" including daily recordings of vital signs using data from its devices.

Microsoft and US health insurance giant United HealthCare have rolled out a ProtectWell app that includes daily symptom screening, while Amazon has deployed a "remote assistant" in its own warehouses to help employees keep distances from security.

- What limits?

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With these systems, employees are monitored as soon as they enter a building lobby, elevator, hallways and throughout the workplace.

Surveillance "blurs the line between work and personal life," said Darrell West, vice president at the Brookings Institution.

"It erodes the protections of medical confidentiality for many workers."

A report released last year by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen identified at least 50 apps and technologies launched during the pandemic and "marketed as workplace surveillance tools to fight Covid-19 ".

The report says some systems go so far as to identify people who don't spend enough time at a sink to see inadequate hand washing.

"The intrusion into privacy faced by workers is alarming, especially since the effectiveness of these technologies in mitigating the spread of Covid-19 has yet to be established," the report said.

- Delicate balance -

Employers face a delicate balance between ensuring workplace safety without intruding on privacy, observes Forrest Briscoe, professor at Penn State University.

While there are legitimate reasons, he says, for requiring proof of vaccination, they sometimes conflict with medical confidentiality regulations that limit a company's access to employee health data.

"You don't want the employer to access this information for work-related decisions," he says.

Granted, "using third-party vendors keeps data separate," the expert added, "but for some of these tech companies their business model involves collecting data and using it for monetizable purposes, which presents a risk to privacy ".

The last major consumer electronics event, the Consumer Electronics Show 2021, was packed with innovations from start-ups around the world seeking to limit virus transmission.

Taiwan-based FaceHeart, for example, showcased software that can be installed in cameras to measure vital signs and screen for shortness of breath, fever, dehydration, high heart rate.

But there are risks in relying too much on technologies that can also prove to be inaccurate, underlines Jay Stanley, analyst with the powerful association of defense of the civil rights ACLU.

"Employers have a legitimate interest in protecting workplaces and keeping employees healthy in the context of the pandemic," says this expert.

"But what worries me is that employers are using the pandemic to systematically collect and store information beyond what is necessary."

© 2021 AFP