A United States government report warns that pervasive digital surveillance in workplaces is triggering mental health issues, increasing injury risks, and leading to unfair job terminations. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found, based on a review of 122 studies and stakeholder interviews, that these technologies are now used by an estimated 68% of American workers.
According to a Newsweek report, the GAO report details that technologies like wearable devices can, in some instances, identify early health warning signs such as cardiac issues.
The same class of tools often pressures employees to work at unsafe speeds to meet digitally enforced productivity metrics, directly increasing their risk of physical injury. This duality is starkly evident in impacts on mental health. “These effects can depend on employers’ practices, including how transparent they are about what information they collect,” the report notes.
While some workers report an improved sense of security, the GAO and affiliated research found that the dominant outcome of constant monitoring is heightened anxiety, stress, and lowered morale.
Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, an associate professor at Columbia University, underscored this in a blog post, stating workers under intensive electronic productivity monitoring were “substantially more likely to report anxiety at work.”
These adverse psychological impacts are worsened by the fact that the employer is not transparent on what data is being gathered and how it is being used. The integration of surveillance data with automated decision-making systems poses a direct threat to fair employment outcomes, as flawed algorithms can dictate punitive workplace actions.
The GAO evidence indicates that computerized tools can misjudge employee performance when using imperfect or poorly calibrated benchmarks.
This is a technological judgement without a human context that can, in turn, be automated to instigate disciplinary action, wage reductions, or even undue dismissal. This systemic risk has led to a crisis of demand for reforming the regulatory system among advocates and researchers.
According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), led by Senior Researcher Irene Tung, “We must take immediate and decisive action to mitigate the harmful impacts of digital surveillance and automated decision systems, especially as new technologies like AI grow more sophisticated.”
NELP proposes revising federal labor protections and directly regulating so-called “bossware,” including its role in performance evaluations and disciplinary measures.
The transparency offered by the GAO shows the federal government’s position in alleviating these multidimensional effects and presents a fatal regulatory weakness: these technologies, including advanced AI, are becoming more common and more advanced across both blue- and white-collar jobs.
The GAO’s findings present a critical juncture: without swift and comprehensive regulation, the pervasive integration of surveillance and automated management will fundamentally erode worker autonomy, safety, and equity, defining the future of work not by human potential but by algorithmic control.
