Exploration of Factors that Can Impact the Willingness of Employees to Share Smart Watch Data with Their Employers
Résumé
Companies increasingly equip employees with smart watches to, e.g., support them in carrying out their work. Smart watches can however collect data about them and reveal sensitive information. This may result in limiting the acceptance of these devices by employees, despite their potential helpfulness. In this paper, we therefore analyze factors that influence employees’ willingness to share smart watch captured private data. In more detail, we investigate employees’ technological knowledge about data collection and processing and the associated risks, their technical affinity, their smart watch ownership and usage, and their legislation knowledge about respective laws. To this end, we have conducted an online survey with more than 1,000 full-time employees. Our findings suggest that employees are aware of the risk associated with smart watches but partially have incorrect knowledge about legal frameworks. Moreover, more than one-third of the participants own a personal smart watch and have a certain technological affinity. However, our results reveal different impacts from these factors on employees’ willingness to share data with their employers.