LRD guides and handbook November 2015

Monitoring and surveillance at work - a practical guide for trade union reps

Chapter 4

Sociometric badges


[ch 4: pages 40-42]

A report on workplace surveillance in the Observer newspaper in August 2015 referred to the development of Sociometric badges, which capture “‘face-to-face interactions’ of the wearer, as well as speech and body movement, then serve all this data up for analysis by employers.” This technology has been adopted by a number of large employers in the USA. 


Early in 2015, the electronics conglomerate Hitachi unveiled a new badge which can measure “happiness” in the workplace, using an algorithm based on various aspects of physical activity, including how quickly and how often a person nods, stands, walks and other movements. Similar technology using wristbands has also been developed in the past. The company is marketing the new technology to employers as a way of aggregating overall happiness in the workplace, rather than singling out the moods of any individual employees. While the ethics of employers using this technology are dubious, the science behind these happiness measurements has also been questioned. 


Why the Workplace of 2016 could echo Orwell’s 1984, the Observer, 23 August 2015, www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/23/data-and-tracking-devices-in-the-workplace-amazon