Transforming Workplaces with the help of Emerging Techs: Concerning Social Distancing and the Privacy Vertical
As we are heading towards the post-pandemic scenario, various organizations are taking a step forward in the adoption of emerging technologies to limit the pandemic spread by creating a healthy work environment.
These emerging technologies can be broadly classified into two categories: cellphone-based technologies, and wearable apps for iOS & Android or wearable devices or such as smartwatches and tracking bands. Both of these verticals have their core focus on maintaining a social distancing norm which is six feet between two persons.
Most of the employees would still be in dilemma to take a chance in their employer’s decision of rolling back to offices. But, as a robust solution provider, we at StarTele Logic the top mobile app development company in India believe that it is of utmost importance for employees as well as employers to grasp the tech tools in use, as well as their robustness to mitigate the risk of infection and the risks posed by them to the privacy of all the stakeholders.
Remodeling the Scenario
In the pre-pandemic era, adoption of emerging technologies within the workplace; such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics was in general considered as an investment to make the organization future-ready in the competitive market. But in the present scenario; the age of social distancing has made emerging techs a quintessential to minimize the operational overheads by ensuring the safety of employees.
Although businesses are leveraging various computer vision tools, thermal imaging cameras, proximity sensors, predictive analytics, and robots to tackle COVID-19 workplace challenges. In the coming sections we will address the issues and technical solutions to help successfully combat the current crisis.
Footsteps to Creating a Remote X World
The new reality of Remote X is based out of three pillars: security for all, access to critical network infrastructure, and industrial internet of things (IIoT). StarTele Logic lays a firm ground for all three, and in doing so, we have accelerated the adoption of 5G while looking ahead to 6G.
In this Remote X world, emerging technologies are being leveraged to sense, understand, monitor, and interact with the physical world. For instance, to make the workplace safer again, IIoT could help us in making the workplace safer again. Motion detectors, cameras, and even the mobile network itself could assist in monitoring the workplace to ensure that people maintain a proper social distance.
The Various Technology Verticals
The tools that are designed to maintain social distancing work in a very precise manner and warn the employees if the distance between them crosses a minimum threshold. It relies on the communications traveling very short distances, and if your device can ‘capture’ a signal from a nearby device then you can be considered in the vicinity of potential threat.
To get accurate and most precise distance measurements, the most promising communication technology is ‘ultra-wideband’; it helps in maintaining the precise social distance between employees. On the other hand, a commonly used medium is ‘Bluetooth Low Energy’; it is generally used in headphones and portable speakers, although its accuracy is less as compared to the former one as environmental factors may produce a sidelining effect on its accuracy.
Lastly, we can also use sound to calculate the distance between people; it is similar to the echoes used by bats to identify the hindrances on their paths. Applications based on contact tracing can also be used to alert people in case they are exposed to infected persons. They use sound techniques based outside the human hearing range for precise distance measurement.
The wearables segment is also transforming itself to be used for social distancing. These wearables are programmed to make a buzz or alert employees when they get closer to six feet of each other. Some of the examples are Estimote, Halo, and COVID Radius. Other factors that devices may take into consideration are body temperature, pulse, or movement.
The Privacy Conundrum!
In most of the organizations, employers can legally the mails, record videos, and monitor calls of employees. Apart from these, what are additional privacy risks posed by contact tracing?
One of the key factors here is the location data that can be used by employers in contact tracing. It can easily quantify the amount of time spent to have lunch, or even the group of colleagues having lunch together. It can also quantify the amount of time spent by them beside the watercooler, and how often or for how long they go to the bathroom or the smoking area. Hence, without having any proper privacy safeguards employees are forced to choose between having their jobs and maintaining their privacy.
Avant-Garde and Data Regulation
Data regulation is one of the important verticals and data shared with the employer or any third party should be kept anonymous and shouldn’t be tied to personal information.
Although there are some of the technologies that prevent employers from accessing the employee’s contact history, in these sorts of verticals only individuals who are infected are alerted, either through alerts in their wearables or smartphones. Though employers take into the accountability of the employees’ health on a large scale it intrudes on an individual’s privacy.
Employees might face some difficulty in analyzing what sort of privacy is being compromised with, as many solutions out there in the market are open source, which means anyone can analyze the data and the code as the information is publicly available.
The EndNote
At the end of the day, we can conclude that social distancing solutions can help protect employees in a post-COVID world. However, in the absence of rigid privacy law, both employees and employers broadly understand the nooks and corners of these technologies, their functionalities, limitations, and capabilities.
As digital interaction has replaced physical interaction, the flip side of it, such as cybercrime could have far more disastrous consequences, too. Thus, having robust end-to-end security isn’t necessary to protect people but critical in creating trust as well. As if people don’t trust Remote X interactions, then it would be difficult for them to take advantage of these tools that are primarily meant to keep them physically safer and healthier.
Companies leveraging new technologies to improve the safety and integrity of the workplace should be driven by periodic evaluations. We at a custom software development company StarTele believe that the requirement for social distance is going to stay for long. Indeed, the use of technology would remind our colleagues and our safety. We can prove to be an all-weather partner in establishing a healthy work environment by delivering the infrastructure as per your needs and requirements. Fighting COVID-19 is a common goal to everyone and we would surely come out of it with unique solutions to meet the needs of a transformed workplace.
Read more:
Covid-19 Crisis: How StarTele Accelerating Digital Communications for Businesses?
