In his years as a welder, David Muhanlal would start the day by checking in with his supervisor. That changed in 2017, when his employer asked its workers to download an app on their phones and clock in and out through that instead.
Mr. Muhanlal didn’t mind too much at first, until one day he left the job site without punching out. He did an errand at a bank, then remembered that he had to clock out.
The next morning, he says, his supervisor was livid about the mistake. Mr. Muhanlal understood the clock-out time was wrong – but he was disturbed to learn that his supervisor knew his exact whereabouts in the 20 minutes he was off-site, because the mobile app’s GPS locator had followed him every step of the way.
