Posted on 04/02/2020 5:42:04 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
Estimote, Inc. has created a set of devices and software that’ll allow a business owner to keep track of their workers remotely. With a “contact tracing dashboard” and Bluetooth devices (worn by each employee), a business owner can keep track of the location and relative health of their workforce. Each wearable device scans for other wearable devices in the area and “registers close interactions.”
...the Estimote system, “in the event of a symptomatic employee, companies can quickly locate other exposed team members who are at risk.” Tracking is done with indoor GPS, working with Bluetooth beacons that the employer has installed in the workplace. The system works with “pre-authorized zones” for tracking.
In an example of the system in play, a warehouse worker is shown [below] with a sort of heat map overlaid on a place of business. The likely areas of disease spread are shown, and potential crossover with other employees is shown and tracked. There’s a big “Quarantine Employees” button the employer would be able to tap to inform workers “under exposure” that they should leave (and likely go home to quarantine) via their Estimote devices.
The system is described by Estimote as “privacy friendly and opt-in for employees.” BUT, if one employee doesn’t want to opt-in, is the system really going to be effective for tracking a potential outbreak at a place of business?
Each device worn by employees has LED indicators, buttons, and waterproof and industrial grade silicone casings. The button “enables employees to log their health status in real-time.” The employer has the ability to store “up to six weeks of exposure data”, work with a “locally stored and secure employee graph database”, and “easily manage quarantine periods” using exposure data.
(Excerpt) Read more at slashgear.com ...
Does this look like a system you’d like to work with at your local place of business? Are you a worker, or are you a business owner or manager? Do you think the indoor location data (GPS data) captured by these devices is an invasion of privacy that’s more important than the potential for curbing further spread of COVID-19?This strikes me as a brilliant solution to be used by employers. All the news we hear about Amazon workers, Instacart workers, Uber drivers, grocery store stockers, etc getting COVID is really disconcerting. This would keep track who the sick people were near the previous several days and the duration of that sicker person with other people. This could really help minimize illness in workplaces.
I'm sure this is going to really tick off many FReepers! But would you quit the company if you had to wear it? Would you be willing to trade privacy for better public health, safer product and food deliveries, and do your part to out of lock-down faster?
Oh YES!
Without question.
Now find the employee who brought bedbugs into the conference room and break room.
*Hey! Who switched chairs at my desk?
First it’s just in the workplace ...
but what happens when they want to track us in public?
“all in the interest of public safety, of course”
Aye...there’s the rub. What I’ve been reading about China REQUIRING everybody to have a cell phone, requiring it to get healthcare, and tracking your whereabouts and online activity is really scary.
It’s the old story that tech can be used for good or bad. How to constrain it to good? Who decides what is “good”?
I’d settle for “who stole my lunch from the fridge?”
“I am perpetual I keep the country clean”
Eww. Well, I’m sure that any employer that would do this will also want to do hourly rectal scans, so I’ll just make it easy for them, drop trou, and show them the location.
So, shall I put you down in the “Hell NO! I quit!” category?
Insanity
ping
I figure about 45 seconds in the break room microwave ought to be enough.
IT - “Yours quit communicating. Here’s your replacement.”
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