Ethical Issues Related to Smartwatch Devices

This article discusses the ethical issues related to smartwatch devices, including privacy concerns and data collection without user consent. It analyzes the impact of wearable smart devices on business and society, as well as the evaluation of smartwatch devices in the fitness and health industry. The conclusion emphasizes the need for robust privacy laws to protect users' data.

Running head: NETWORK MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS 1
Network Management in Organizations
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Introduction
The growing interest in smartwatches has sparked major user privacy concerns. With the
advent of smart technology corporations are seeking for ways to gather and use personal
location, health as well as purchasing data collected by the wearable devices of their clients as
well as employees (Moore & Piwek, 2017). However, smart devices are raising eyebrows
because the wider piracy concern is that the collected information from different wearable
devices is greatly being combined to create profits from individual users. In addition smart
devices have the ability to drawing inferences regarding individual users’ future preferences and
actions among others.
Ethical issues related to Smartwatch Devices
Wearable devices store huge volumes of personal data which can be accessed by third parties
without user consent, which creates ethical issues about security, privacy and informed consent.
Data collected from smart devices is being used for selling ads and generating revues without
user’s consent.
Analysis of Ethical Issues related to Smartwatch Devices
In the case of Mobile Device Management (MDM) ability has become the cornerstone
driver of interest in enterprise mobility products. It is unfortunate that the tools have transformed
into full-brown enterprise mobility management (EMM) suites that include data security and
applications to mention a few. Despite the fact that these offerings cover the basics in regard to
hardware management there is a difference when it comes to certain extended mobile
management features. EMM platforms aid organizations to secure their mobile infrastructure and
control device policies as well as managing mobile content, networks, apps and services, and

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overseeing expenses connected to mobile policies, communication services and identity
management (Moore & Piwek, 2017). Similar to the way MDM were able to evolve to EMM is
the case to EMM, which has evolved into unified endpoint management (UEM). Unified
endpoint management is a strategic approach that consolidates the manner in which
organizations manage an array of deployed devices ranging from tablets, phones and PCs. UEM
then delivers reliable data into the state of devices as well as apps that are used by workers and
insight into identity regarding the way the apps and hardware are being utilized for purposes of
increasing cross-functional workflows.
Impact of Wearable Smart Devices on Business and Society
With regard to the corporate interest in wearables it is raising an increased concern over
personal privacy. A research conducted by data privacy management company Truste in the
recent past found that over 90% of the United States Internet users are worried about their online
privacy. Consequently, more than 90% of these people said that they would avoid firms that fail
to safeguard their customer’s privacy (Kalantari, 2017). The challenging aspect with
smartwatches is because they are relatively a novel technology in its infancy and its popularity is
not clear to most buyers and how their private data can end being used as well as the potential
threats related to it. According to the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC),
smartwatches location data amongst other wearables is potentially not secure since the Bluetooth
or GPS scanner can be used to track an individual’s whereabouts when the device is separated
from a smartphone (Cheng & Mitomo, 2017). Hence, smartwatches can make it easier to
tracking a person.
Employees need to be cautioned in regard to the use of smart wearables. For example, the
data collected from smartwatches can be utilized by their employer to monitor all their activities.

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While employees are enticed by their employers through gifts as well as other incentives to make
them accept health data monitoring smartwatches it is an attempt to minimize the corporation’s
insurance expenses. With the increased personal data available from a smartwatch there is no
need to identify an employee’s social security number or name (Kim & Shin, 2015).
Subsequently, with increased granularity with smartwatch data, the employer is able to monitor
where their employee goes, whatever they are doing, and where they work, hence it becomes
easier to uniquely identify one.
Evaluation of Smartwatch Devices
The use of wearables in the fitness and health industry will significantly result to a
healthier society. The technology hulks have shifted in the fitness and health of their customers
has led to many wearable devices such as fitness trackers that have the capability to monitor
sleep pattern, heart rate, hydration level and detecting body temperature (Adapa, Nah, Hall, Siau,
& Smith, 2018). With the unique features of these devices such as analytics, it allow people to
keep a track of their health. Similarly, health and fitness devices allow health organizations to
enhance patient’s health and also reduce the cost of health delivery by providing them with
remote patient monitoring (RPM). The remote patient monitoring takes patients away from the
conventional clinical environment. In addition to that, the analysis given by the personal health
and fitness devices are also significant to the employers in managing healthcare expenses, fitness
issue, and managing health (Adapa et al., 2018). Thus, these health and fitness devices could
help to improve peoples’ health.
Conclusion

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In conclusion, smartwatches technology is still in its infancy hence it is potential to many
privacy threats. As a result, there is need for a robust privacy laws to smartwatch devices to
emphasize on minimal data collection from users (Tapp, 2017). Also, the collected data should
not be kept for long in hopes of selling it for ads and other revenue reasons.
References
Adapa, A., Nah, F. F. H., Hall, R. H., Siau, K., & Smith, S. N. (2018). Factors influencing the
adoption of smart wearable devices. International Journal of Human–Computer
Interaction, 34(5), 399-409.
Cheng, J. W., & Mitomo, H. (2017). The underlying factors of the perceived usefulness of using
smart wearable devices for disaster applications. Telematics and Informatics, 34(2), 528-539.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0736585316303586
Kalantari, M. (2017). Consumers' adoption of wearable technologies: literature review, synthesis,
and future research agenda. International Journal of Technology Marketing, 12(3), 274-
307.
Kim, K. J., & Shin, D. H. (2015). An acceptance model for smart watches: implications for the
adoption of future wearable technology. Internet Research, 25(4), 527-541.
Moore, P., & Piwek, L. (2017). Regulating wellbeing in the brave new quantified
workplace. Employee Relations, 39(3), 308-316.
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/ER-06-2016-0126.

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Tapp, K. E. (2017). Smart Devices Won't Be Smart until Society Demands an Expectation of
Privacy. U. Louisville L. Rev., 56, 83. https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?
handle=hein.journals/branlaj56&section=8