To the California Privacy Protection Agency: Workers Need Data Protections NOW

Productivity management systems dehumanize warehouse workers and push them to the edge of their physical capabilities. Low-wage employers use scheduling software that doesn’t account for workers’ schedule constraints or prevent demanding back-to-back assignments. Employers can monitor your off-duty activity with social listening software—and even feed this data into an algorithm to predict whether a job candidate will become a whistleblower. 

Right now, a worker’s only recourse if they don’t like an employer’s monitoring policy is to get another job.

This is why we joined advocacy groups and researchers—including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and UC Berkeley’s Labor Center—in calling on the California Privacy Protection Agency to leverage the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to provide workers with the same data and privacy protections afforded to consumers under this law.

In the letter, we assert that:

1. The scale and scope of data-driven workplace technologies necessitate broad protections for workers
2. Full transparency and disclosure are critical rights given the black-box nature of automated decision-making systems in the workplace
3. Workers deserve the same agency over their data as consumers under the CCPA

With the rapid development and deployment of AI and other digital technologies, the future of work is on the line. As the letter notes, California has a historic opportunity to lead the U.S. in establishing workers as key stakeholders on how best to govern artificial intelligence and related technological innovations.

You can read the full letter here: