Thread by @WellsLucasSanto

Very interesting keynote panel at #FAccT22 now about management tools ('bossware') that reduce worker's autonomy and give power to employers.

Thinking about products that are often marketed for productivity, but used in unintended ways.

Dr. Negron mentions that this tech can be weaponized by companies; for example, they're used by places like Amazon and Whole Foods to understand where there's a connection between workers that could lead to unionizing (!!). #FAccT22

Some really interesting / scary(?) things that these workforce management tools can do: ranking workers based on productivity, giving influence scores, track physical movements, and even sentiment analysis in meetings (!!); can feed into more malpractice

- Dr. Negron #FAccT22

Dr. Min Kyung Lee talks about how her work has looked at the context of automatic schedule programs, which they've found has physical, financial, and psychological harms b/c people have a hard time to predict how much they'll work & can prevent them from paying rent #FAccT22

Dr. Rida Qadri, on the Global South: techniques of surveillance have been perfected on low-power populations, and then move towards the Global North; the narrative is that this is for productivity and that workers don't engage in fraud. #FAccT22

Dr. Qadri also talks about how workers in Jakarta, Indonesia have used technology itself to subvert algorithmic management (like using glitches in the security architecture & selling their own apps). #FAccT22
Makes me think of this MIT Tech Review article: technologyreview.com/2022/04/21/105…

Dr. Frederik Borgesius talks about how GDPR has actually helped with dealing with this; it's not just about privacy but in general about protecting human rights with personal data use; allows workers to send an email to ask people to show worker data on them, w/o lawyer #FAccT22

Dr. Seth Lazar points us towards Dr. Wilneida Negron's paper with coworker.org called "Little Tech is Coming for Workers" where they establish a framework for reclaiming and building worker power #FAccT22

home.coworker.org/wp-content/upl…

Thinking now about how we can do work that benefits the workers. Dr. Lee talks about how even if workers get their raw data, it's hard for them to get actual benefits from it; we should figure out how workers themselves can benefit from their data. #FAccT22

Dr. Qadri: "we should build relationships of trust with workers and have relationships of care and think about what these would look like"; avoid research that's acontextual and US-centric #FAccT22

Dr. Borgesius mentions that "The rights of workers are being sabotaged even in countries with good welfare status" (like the Netherlands). Gig work is prevalent there & it's like we're at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution without statutes/regulations on work. #FAccT22

Dr. Borgesius mentions that we also need competition laws to break up the big companies; Dr. Lazar mentions that like the coworker paper goes into, this is a problem of Little Tech as well, not just Big Tech. #FAccT22