There is no question that new technologies, coupled with the near-ubiquitous digitization of work and work-related behaviors, has the potential to help organizations monitor, predict, and understand employee behaviors (and thoughts) at scale, like it has never been done before. At the same time, these same technologies, deployed in an unethical or illegal way, also permit employers to control and manipulate employees, violating trust and threatening not just their freedom and morale, but also their privacy. The only way to keep this from happening is through strict enforcement of adequate laws and regulations that ensure employees remain in the driver’s seat, able to authorize employers to use their data (or not), and benefiting from whatever insights and knowledge are derived from it. To be sure, there is no logical tension between what is good for the employer, and what is good for the employee. But the temptation to force people into certain behaviors, or to use their personal data

There is no question that new technologies, coupled with the near-ubiquitous digitization of work and work-related behaviors, has the potential to help organizations monitor, predict, and understand employee behaviors (and thoughts) at scale, like it has never been done before. At the same time, these same technologies, deployed in an unethical or illegal way, also permit employers to control and manipulate employees, violating trust and threatening not just their freedom and morale, but also their privacy. The only way to keep this from happening is through strict enforcement of adequate laws and regulations that ensure employees remain in the driver’s seat, able to authorize employers to use their data (or not), and benefiting from whatever insights and knowledge are derived from it. To be sure, there is no logical tension between what is good for the employer, and what is good for the employee. But the temptation to force people into certain behaviors, or to use their personal data