
Employee ID badge monitors you at work – except in bathroom - gregholmberg
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2016/09/07/this-employee-badge-knows-not-only-where-you-are-but-whether-you-are-talking-to-your-co-workers/
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DKnoll
>“Within three or four years, every single ID badge is going to have these
sensors,” predicted Ben Waber, chief executive of Humanyze, a Boston-based
employee analytics company.

>Those concerned about their privacy might be alarmed by the arrival of such
badges. But Humanyze says it doesn’t record the content of what people say,
just how they say it. And the boss doesn’t get to look at individuals’
personal data. It is also up to the employee to decide whether they want to
participate.

Employees can choose whether they would like to participate, but it will be in
every ID badge in 3-4 years?

I'm not really well informed about the science of speech analysis, but I'm
going to assume raw audio is recorded at some stage, and since the device is
the size of a credit card, I'll also assume it's not being processed on the
device.

I don't see how this could possibly be as anonymized as they claim. You're
also painting a target for rival enterprises or states who would like to carry
out espionage against you, which seems like a legitimate concern in the
financial industry.

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ENGNR
You're on company time, why not just have a huge physical neck collar, with a
chain, to ensure your paid time is spent productively at your desk. 9-5 you're
a company resource after all

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
I always thought the necktie bore a striking resemblance to a noose.

~~~
leesalminen
I've thought this for a long time as well. Always seemed silly to me.

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rdtsc
> The beacons tracking your movements are omitted from bathroom locations, to
> give you some privacy.

Oh why even bother. Just do it in the bathroom as well. I like how it tracks
everything and then throws that little -- but look, we are concerned for your
privacy, we are not creepy at all.

> If you don’t give people choice, if you don’t aggregate instead of showing
> individual data,

Yes, let's aggregate data in some obscure way, while hand waving about
"anonymizing" stuff. People will totally buy that, and trust us.

> Their bodies swiftly respond to stressful situations and relax when calm
> returns, leaving them primed for the next challenge,”

Lovely.

-"Steve, I think that patch froze the kernel".

-"Sorry, I am doing my daily hyperventilating and then calming down thing, to get my stats up for upcoming reviews. Ask the intern to restart everything. I'll be there in 30 min".

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Arainach
I don't understand how anyone can say something like "It is also up to the
employee to decide whether they want to participate." with a straight face.
All historical evidence points to the fact that people will be "encouraged" to
the point where this becomes mandatory.

~~~
colordrops
I totally understand how they can say it. They are being machiavellian and
know that saying that is a form of propaganda that allows them to slide in
something unsavory.

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thesmallestcat
Engineers who help create stuff like this are assholes. How could you see this
being used for good in any way?

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PhantomGremlin
_Engineers who help create stuff like this are assholes._

Asshole is s pretty strong word. There's a somewhat different explanation; it
posits that engineers are ignorant rather than evil. Cory Doctorow said it
better than I ever could:

    
    
       Engineers are all basically high-functioning
       autistics who have no idea how normal people
       do stuff.
    

I got a lot of flack last time I posted that quip; I'll grant that it isn't
strictly accurate in a medical sense. But it gets the point across. Engineers
simply don't think the same way that muggles think, and in addition they're
unable or unwilling to view the world from that different perspective.

~~~
strict9
No, they are definitely assholes. Additionally, dismissing engineers as "high
functioning autistics" or "ignorant" is cheap stereotyping.

Thinking in a less than common way isn't an excuse or reason for doing
something evil. To suggest it shows a lack of understanding of engineers,
people with autism, and how things are designed and used.

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daemonhunter
I'd turn my notice in immediately. We are people not machines. This would not
encourage good culture. In fact, it would sink moral.

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maruhan2
In ways, this is interesting. This is analyzing one's performance skill based
on their behavior and physical clues. There should most definitely be a
correlation, and I personally believe that one's mental state is most crucial
indication for productivity at a deskjob. At the moment, it's demoralizing
since there are very few known solutions to improve those that are naturally
not talented in that department (including me). But, as more research in those
areas happen, this might become a standard. It's kind of like if you are an
athlete, you show your condition via your scores/times. To improve, you
practice and workout. As a deskjob, you show your condition via new mental
checking technology, and to improve you do things that come out of these
research

~~~
throwanem
You have the athlete judged by results, and the knowledge worker by some kind
of proprietary algorithm that attempts to derive mental state from somatic
clues. These are in no way parallel cases.

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ChuckMcM
I remember the PARC smart badge system, had a similar sort of push back. Sure
there were "good" things like quick attendance count at meetings and an easy
to use "where is Bob?" sort of service, but on balance it was a net negative
on the employee.

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blackguardx
I've never been at a single company that took attendance at meetings. If you
have to take attendance at a meeting, it is probably a worthless meeting.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Generally in the notes of a meeting there is a list of attendees, that helps
someone reading the notes to understand who was present and should presumably
already be aware of the subject matter, and who wasn't and may need background
on the meeting if the subject came up.

~~~
blackguardx
I'm guessing you are talking about small meetings and not 20+ person meetings
where it would be hard to tell who needed catching up from a long list of
attendees.

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fzilla
NOPE.

Quitting the second someone asks me to wear one. End of story.

~~~
flukus
The second anyone in the office is asked to wear one, voluntarily or not.

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meowface
They're pushing that it's mainly for the benefit of the employee, not the
employer. Or at least they're trying to make it seem that way.

If so, why not just make it a consumer-targeted product? Something only the
badge holder can view data for?

~~~
flukus
> In an interview with The Washington Post, Waber said one financial services
> client plans to use the badges to increase productivity.

Not even out the gate and it's already about monitoring.

~~~
throwanem
Take a look at their website. It's all about monitoring.

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sevenless
Companies that do this should stop saying 'employees' and use 'meat robots'.

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huac
This is certainly one way to run a business. But I'd rather work for a company
that trusts me enough that they don't need to micromanage me.

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1_2__3
Er, this is basically just a puff piece for a startup. Why are people reading
it like it indicates the world is moving in a particular direction? There's no
more reason this idea is going to succeed than any other. In fact it seems
kind of doomed to fail.

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throwanem
Because it's fucking creepy, that's why. Excuse my language, but I find no
less profane adjective to suffice.

And 'puff piece' doesn't seem to me to suffice, either. This isn't TechCrunch
or PR Newswire; this is the Washington Post. And the article's pretty
laudatory, too, with privacy concerns dismissed out of hand - politely, to be
sure, but dismissed out of hand nonetheless. Granted, it's still something of
a stretch to say 'this is the way the world is going'. But it's a lot less so
than it might be, and that's creepy in itself.

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cyphar
Despite the claim that data will be aggregated and opt-in collection, it
doesn't change the fact that the next company to produce something similar
will offer any of those features. So the privacy concerns are very valid. Not
least of all because most people take their employee badge home! I don't even
see how it will be legitimately helpful to a manager to see how people speak
in aggregate. And no doubt people will game the system, etc, etc.

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lykron
It sounds like I will have to charge my ID. Nope.

~~~
dingo_bat
Haha! Hadn't thought of that. It's officially dead guys.

~~~
AstralStorm
Once every bunch of years if they use latest low power electronics and a good
battery.

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elcct
Wet dream for insecure control-freak managers

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AstralStorm
Your efficiency has dropped 10%, so we're cutting your wage.

As measured by time spent at the desk?

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nashashmi
Had these inventors concentrated on providing value to the employee, they
would not get so much privacy concerns.

Instead they focused on the corporate overlord to make it mainstream.

Are they aiming for as many enemies as possible?

