Privacy fears as bosses deploy high-tech fitness trackers to spy on employees

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Soon, your boss may want to keep an eye on you in more ways than just whether or not you're at your desk. 

A growing number of employers are urging their staff to wear company-provided fitness trackers with the incentive that they'll receive quarterly payouts for reaching step goals, in addition to other rewards like insurance reimbursements.

In exchange, bosses are supplied with detailed data on their employees, ranging from their daily steps, hours spent sitting down, heart rate and sleep quality, according to the Washington Post. 

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The practice has raised privacy concerns among many, while creating a totally new level of interaction between workers and their employers.

'The more that employers know about their employees' lives, especially outside the workplace, off-duty hours, the more potential control or effects they have on their lives in the first place,' Lee Tien with consumer privacy advocate the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Post. 

'It's quite possible there will be effects on whether you are retained, promoted, demoted - who is first to be laid off.'  

The trackers are provided to staff either at no cost or via a small fee through their company's insurance provider. 

Only employees who voluntarily opt-in take part in the program. 

The device tracks their fitness activity

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