Worker Data Rights in the Age of AI

Employers now collect far more than payroll records. Common data includes badge swipes, keystroke and application activity, screenshots, email and chat metadata, GPS location, video, productivity scores and, in some workplaces, biometrics such as fingerprints for time clocks. AI systems combine this data into rankings, alerts and predictions, such as which employees are likely to quit. Under the EU's GDPR, employees are data subjects like anyone else. Employers need a lawful basis for processing. Consent is usually weak here because of the power imbalance, so employers typically rely on contract, legal obligation or legitimate interests, balanced against the worker's privacy. Workers have rights of access (Article 15), correction, erasure (limited where the employer must legally keep records), objection, and protection against decisions based solely on automated processing that significantly affect them (Article 22). Intrusive monitoring usually requires a data protection impact assessment. Article 88 lets member states add employment-specific rules. The EU AI Act adds more: it classifies many employment uses of AI as high-risk and bans emotion recognition in the workplace, except for medical or safety reasons. In the United States there is no comprehensive federal worker privacy law. California's CCPA, as amended by the CPRA, stopped exempting employee data on January 1, 2023. California workers can now request access, deletion and correction, and limit certain uses of sensitive data. Other states rely on narrower laws. New York and Connecticut require notice of electronic monitoring. Illinois's Biometric Information Privacy Act requires informed written consent before collecting biometrics and has produced major employee lawsuits. Federal bills such as the Stop Spying Bosses Act and the No Robot Bosses Act have been introduced but not enacted. A common misconception is that the right to delete lets a worker erase their whole file. Employers can usually keep data they are legally required to retain or need for legal claims.