Tech News: Are wearables at work a risky business?

Are wearables at work a risky business? Introduction and legal implications

Wearables are everywhere, and they're beginning to cover everything from the wearers' exact location and physical activity to their heartbeat and sleep patterns. This year has seen the Apple Watch added to the wrists of those already with smartphones, while hiking watches from the likes of Garmin have joined activity trackers. There are even some workers using Google Glass.

So will your next office perk be a free Apple Watch? That's unlikely, but there's a reasonable chance that you'll be given a Fitbit. However, how companies handle wearables and the data they collect is a touchy subject – especially in the light of a court case in Canada last year where an employee used her Fitbit history in a personal injury claim.

For some businesses the exact whereabouts of its employees could be valuable insight for a competitor, while a misuse of activity data could easily affect staff morale – most employees want more autonomy, not micromanaging. Is self-tracking safe for staff or businesses?

One company distributed 24,000 Fitbit devices to its staff

What kind of wearables are being used in the workplace?

Fitness trackers, GPS-enabled devices and wearables that allow hands-free computing – think Google Glass – are all becoming more common in the workplace. "Fitness monitors are used to incentivise the use of corporate wellness programs, especially for self-insured organisations," says Kristopher Wasserman, Vice President of Client Services at eQ, whose eDiscovery services include Litigation Project Management.

One company distributed 24,000 Fitbits to their staff, while 10,000 companies offered fitness trackers to employees during 2014. Next year the majority of companies in the US employing over 500 people will offer fitness trackers. Could they soon be part of health insurance contracts?

Meanwhile, GPS-enabled devices streamline logistics at distribution centres – some companies use armbands to track goods, while other firms have their employees carry scanners equipped with GPS that tell them the most efficient route to take to collect an item. Finally, hands-free devices are used for any task that requires both hands.

"People who climb telephone poles use armband computers, surgeons use voice activated systems that display requested information to doctors, and military fighter pilots use heads-up displays in their planes," says Wasserman. And that's just the start.

Is data collected by wearables safe?

Location, activity and health data is just about the most precious personal data of all, but is the data collected by wearables safe from hackers? A Fitbit was hacked at the Hacktivity Conference in Budapest last month, which prompted Fitbit and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) to issue some voluntary Guiding Principles for companies handling the 'personal wellness data' generated by wearable tech.

"More consumers than ever are now harnessing personal data – calories consumed, daily steps taken and heart rate measurements," notes Gary Shapiro, president and CEO at the CEA. "As this technology evolves, consumers will learn even more about themselves, giving them a greater ability to lead healthier lives. These benefits rely heavily on wellness data, and the Guiding Principles demonstrate that wellness technology companies understand they must be trusted stewards of that consumer data."

Exactly how companies should manage activity data recorded by wearables used by staff is still being debated. "Very few companies have been able to institute a comprehensive governance policy to proactively manage and maintain the data created by personnel," says Wasserman. He doubts there is a one-size-fits-all answer.

Google Glass has a much bigger future in the workplace than in mainstream culture

Will we see data collected by wearables used more in court?

Yes, though for now it's rare – and rarely done well – for one simple reason; law schools don't teach attorneys to use data as evidence. "Currently there are only a few instances in criminal cases where Fitbit data was used to refute or verify individual physical activity," says Wasserman. "Until wearable technology breaks out of the fad stage and inserts itself into the workplace, it will take a while for data associated with wearables to show up as evidence."

The law is a reactionary business that's all about process, not progress. "If an attorney representing company X requests that the opposing side produce data only from its email system, they will only receive emails," says Wasserman. "There could be a treasure trove of useful information available on other interconnected systems that most lawyers wouldn't even think of asking for, such as mobile devices, social media messaging services, key-card logging systems, etc."

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The fact that employee wearables will soon become a treasure trove is not in doubt. However, there's presently also no easy way of finding, preserving, retrieving and analysing data from wearables prior to a court case, or for any other use.

"Unlike email systems, there are no off-the-shelf solutions currently available in the industry to seamlessly capture and convert the disparate data stores into a form that is manageable for attorneys reviewing for relevancy," says Wasserman. For now, it's a manual process for technical experts.

Staying out of court, however, is the preferred option for business. "We're talking to companies about using wearables to help keep them out of court, by incorporating Bluetooth beacon interactions to trigger alerts about health and safety and ensure that employees are following the right procedures," says JP Luchetti, Consultancy Director, Mubaloo.

Smartwatches collect location, sensory and even heartbeat data

How does the Internet of Things affect how businesses handle personal data?

It's too early to tell for sure, but the emergence of the Internet of Things brings forward four questions about personal data – who owns the data being created, where it is being housed, how can it be retrieved, and how should it be interpreted?

"Wearables are not standalone devices," says Wasserman, who insists that a Fitbit has very little data stored upon it. "Typically a small collection of data is housed locally and sent to either a Bluetooth-connected smartphone, or a personal computer," he says. "The data is then uploaded to a cloud database that may be housed on a third-party storage array, such as Amazon Web Services."

The data is analysed in the cloud and presented back to the user as summaries on daily activity or sleep patterns, for example. It's all automated. "In a scenario where only one individual's data is in question, this does not present much of a challenge," says Wasserman. "But what happens when your workforce is 1,000+ employees?"

Within three years two million workers will be required to wear an activity tracker

The future for wearables at work

Like it or not, wearables at work are inevitable. By 2018, two million employees will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices as a condition of employment. That's according to analysts at Gartner, who think that police officers, fire-fighters and paramedics will comprise the largest group of employees required to monitor their health or fitness.

"The health and fitness of people employed in jobs that can be dangerous or physically demanding will increasingly be tracked by employers via wearable devices," says Gartner in its report 'Top Strategic Predictions for 2016 and Beyond: The Future Is a Digital Thing'. "Their heart rates and respiration, and potentially their stress levels, could be remotely monitored and help could be sent immediately if needed," states the report. Professional athletes, political leaders, airline pilots, industrial workers and remote field workers are next in line.

What about the office?

However, in the mainstream office, wearables are far from embedded. "Wearables are still viewed as a non-essential item," says Luchetti. "They are nice to have, but when you consider that many companies are only just coming round to properly utilising smartphones and tablets, we're a while away from wearables becoming commonplace … it's likely that the phone or tablet will remain the device for the connected office."

That's not to say that big companies of all kinds aren't testing out and experimenting with wearables – they are – but with legal cases beginning to use data from these devices, businesses need to think about how to secure and interrogate data drawn from wearables. Or else the novelty of wearables at work could easily wear off…

The future of wearables