Amazon launches new monitoring device to detect whether employees maintain social distancing
Amazon plans to sell a tool that can detect whether employees wear masks or maintain social distancing from others.
In addition to the new crown epidemic, this tool can also be used to track compliance with other workplace regulations, or to monitor the public, such as the number of customers waiting in a store.
The system requires a box to be installed on the existing security camera, and then ready-made artificial intelligence applications can be used. But privacy protection activists expressed concern about this.
Remote work has led more and more companies to use software that checks employees, but Amazon's new system focuses on tracking people and products in factories, stores, and other traditional workplaces.
It can automate inspection tasks, such as detecting production defects, or tracking the movement of barcodes and labels.
But this device can also be used for people. Amazon claims that, for example, in a retail store, it can count the number of customers, track their movements, and check the length of the queue.
Amazon also said that in factories or other workplaces, the technology can be used to supervise employees, "for any potential problems or unsafe conditions will be notified immediately, so you can take preventive action."
A company that makes guitars says it is using this product to "track the time it takes for a colleague to complete each task when assembling the guitar."
"Financial Times" reported that AWS panoramic equipment can even detect that the vehicle has been taken where it should not be. The Financial Times added that some large companies, including Siemens and Deloitte, are already experimenting with the system.
The Confederation of British Trade Unions released a report this week on employers' use of artificial intelligence tools.
Policy officer Mary Towers said: "The release of this new monitoring tool once again proves that this workplace revolution is accelerating."
But she warned that this cannot hide the needs of workers. "In our report, we warned that such intrusive technologies may have a potential negative impact on the well-being, privacy, data protection, and non-discrimination rights of employees."
Amazon plans to sell a system to the company that can detect whether employees wear masks or maintain social distancing from others.
She said that opinion polls indicate that workers have begun to worry about surveillance cameras being used to monitor work performance, which were installed for safety purposes.
Silkie Carlo, the head of the privacy organization Big Brother Watch (Big Brother Watch), said that automated monitoring of the workplace is "difficult to bring benefits to employees."
"Amazon uses social distancing as another excuse for data collection and surveillance, which is a huge shame," she said.
Amazon has already faced investigations for its way of monitoring warehouse employees. In September of this year, an American research group reported that Amazon conducted a lot of monitoring of employees and restricted the activities of union organizations. In addition, Amazon has also clashed with some employees who accused Amazon of treating them "like robots."
Microsoft apologized this week for a feature "Productivity Score" that allows employers to monitor employee activity. After strong protests and extensive discussions, Microsoft removed the personal username function from the product, which means that the "productivity score" function cannot be used to view how individual users use software and services.
