The Washington Post reports that Activision Blizzard paid Ovia, a pregnancy-tracking app, for the data of its female employees. Part of the data includes information from when the employee first intended to conceive, all the way to details of the child. This ranges from the child’s name, all the way to details of complications such as postpartum haemorrhage.
The company’s workers reportedly get a special version of the app, which relays anonymised data back to Activision Blizzard. That data is then accessible by the company’s human resource personnel. Some would argue that this shows that Activision Blizzard is a company that cares for its employees. It’s even offering US$1 (~RM4.13) gift cards for every day of data shared. On the flip side, the extent of the data that Ovia is asking for seems to be more than just a company looking out for its workers. It’s also possible for the anonymous data to be identified by cross-checking other data. More so when pregnant women make up the minority in a workforce.
This also appears to be the company’s second go at asking its employees for permission to track their health in exchange for incentives. According to the report, Activision Blizzard previously asked for exercise, sleep, diet and mental health in 2014. In the end, there are two ways of looking at this. If you’re being optimistic, you can say that Activision Blizzard is truly looking after its employees by incentivising them to use an app that’s beneficial to them. On the other hand, it’s also likely that the company is actually using the data collected to adjust its medical and insurance coverage or for something else in the future. (Source: The Washington Post. Image: Ovia Health)
