This morning finds me in New Mexico. My 99-year-old father took a fall last week, and after a brief hospital stay, he has been placed in a nursing center for follow up care. As a result, I made last minute plans to fly out here to visit him and help my sister with some of his affairs. My trip early Sunday morning gave me a glimpse of how creepy the advances in technology are getting.
I use the travel app Waze whenever I travel or drive any distance on the highway. I opened the app Sunday morning for my drive from Sarasota to the airport in Tampa. I did not program the destination, as I have made this trip many, many times. My car could probably drive the route on its own – it is not a Tesla so the odds are that it could do so without killing anyone. Some may think I keep the app open for advisories on police locations. Nothing could be further from the truth. For the record, and in case my insurance agent is reading this, I strictly obey all traffic safety laws and never exceed the speed limit. Really. I keep Waze open in order to be repeatedly warned about vehicles parked 40 feet off the road that are endangering no one; unless, of course, you happen to be driving 40 feet off the road.
Now, apparently, they have just updated the Waze app with some new whiz bang, creepy features.
I left for the airport just after 5:00AM for the hour-long trip. As soon as I hit the interstate, Waze popped a message up on the screen of my telephone. I initially thought it was an advertisement for a nearby business, as the system has been offering those for several years. Instead, I was very surprised to see it was a question. It asked, “Are you headed to Tampa International Airport for Flight 5030?” This was quite a surprise, since I was in fact headed to Tampa International Airport for Flight 5030; I just had not informed my phone about where we were going.
Actually, I did indirectly inform my phone, through the use of two different apps. I checked in for my flight through the Southwest app and saved the boarding passes to my iPhone wallet. I also entered the flights on FlightAware, which is a flight tracking application. Clearly one of those apps shared my information with Waze. Neither is fessing up at this point.
Of course, Waze is owned by Google, and they probably knew I was headed to New Mexico before I did.
As I stared at the screen, pondering the concept of my GPS app knowing where I was going without my telling it, it did something else that surprised me. Without any input from me, it proceeded to map the route and start issuing directions to the airport.
It programmed itself using data found in parts unknown. So now apps on our phones can share data to predict our location, plans and behavior, and act accordingly on that information. Is it me, or that just a bit creepy?
Now, you ask, what does any of this have to do with workers’ compensation?
An excellent question. I always knew you were very bright.
At a time when some carriers and TPA’s are venturing into the realm of app development, processes like this could serve to vastly undermine trust and utilization of these applications. Injured workers who fear having their activity and location monitored will be reluctant to use such services, and that reaction will undermine the purpose of offering it in the first place.
And of course, I am assuming that no workers’ comp entity would actually try to engineer such tracking systems into their software….
It is possible that the younger generations, who grew up with this technology and seem to have a lessened sense of urgency when it comes to privacy, simply won’t care or think about the nefarious potential of the systems they depend on. To that end, the continued integration of personal data through divergent applications simply won’t matter.
But then again, it might. With these new services being adopted within our industry, we will need to make extra effort to assure the people using them that monitoring their behavior is not part of the plan.
Otherwise, we’ll be just as creepy as our GPS navigation system.