Companies use wearable technology to ensure employees social distance at work

Bracelets and belt clips that light up and bleep when employees get too close to each other are the latest weapon in the battle against coronavirus.

An Italian company, IK Multimedia, has moved into pandemic wearables and uses them in both its Italian factory and US offices, Bloomberg reported.

Enrico Iori, the firm’s chief executive, said: “The good news is that the people stay apart. The device buzzes and vibrates. It keeps the people apart because it’s annoying.”

He added: “We had no outbreak, we had no internally generated cases.”

Other companies, such as Proxxi, make wristbands that employees wear to remind them to observe social distancing.

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Proxxi’s Contact wristbands are being used in the TV industry to maintain social distancing on set, according to the Bloomberg report.

A spokesman for Proxxi said: “Contact is a wrist-worn band that briefly vibrates to notify wearers that another band is within six feet, reminding them of the need to maintain social distance.

“It is deployed to all personnel at a job site or workplace to help mitigate the risk of an outbreak.

“In the case of a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, Proxxi Contact's reporting functionality allows for detailed contact tracing data to trace which workers might need testing and quarantine.”

Other companies are using off-the-shelf devices to track social distancing, with Samsung offering a customised version of its Galaxy Watch Active.

Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC Mobile Device Trackers, told the Irish Times: “Around the world, many organisations have also started to use wearables to help the fight against COVID-19.

“Not only are wearables being used to track symptoms, but also to warn wearers when social distance isn’t being maintained.”

The pandemic has seen technology employed in new ways in the workplace.

Privacy organisations and data regulators have warned about employers using controversial surveillance software to check home workers are at their desk.

Demand for such software has spiked in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, with one company, Hubstaff, saying that demand has tripled since March.

Other software, such as Time Doctor, ActivTrak and StaffCop, also helps employers keep tabs on home workers, Wired reported.

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A spokesman for the ICO told the Sunday Telegraph this week: “People expect that they can keep their personal lives private and that they are also entitled to a degree of privacy in the workplace.

“If organisations wish to monitor their employees, they should be clear about its purpose and that it brings real benefits.

“Organisations also need to make employees aware of the nature, extent and reasons for any monitoring.”

Privacy groups have warned that employers are increasingly able to insist on the use of such software, as employees worry about their jobs.

“It’s increasingly hard to say no,” said Eva Galperin, cyber security director at the California-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) group.

“In this economy, what are your other options, when there’s 20% unemployment? It can be very coercive.”

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