Thousands of employers are closely watching where their workers are, how much they produce, and how they communicate. Much of this technology became common during the coronavirus pandemic. Companies still use digital tools to track locations and measure how quickly tasks are finished. They can even access the cameras on work phones and laptops. This has raised concerns about how much privacy employees have given up.

Employers have always monitored staff, but recent progress in artificial intelligence and data science lets them build large collections of information about each worker. According to Wilneida Negrón, a researcher at a nonprofit group called Coworker, these records can be used to punish employees or to try to predict their behavior. An investigation by three universities also found that some popular monitoring programs had shared workers' names, email addresses, and other personal data with outside companies without clearly telling workers.

The effects are already visible. One pharmacist's employer measured the length of her phone calls and appointments, then asked why she spent so long with each patient. "Everything was counted," she said. A college teacher discovered that an administrator was reading her students' written work and her own comments on it.

Some states, including New York and Maine, require employers to tell workers when they are being monitored. Experts advise people to learn about the practices in their industry, ask what data is collected, and avoid using work devices for personal matters.