Law 360

With businesses increasingly coming back online amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, employers are turning to an assortment of apps and high-tech gadgets designed to make their workplace safety plans easier to execute, but attorneys warn those technologies come with privacy risks and employee relations headaches.

Among the cornerstones of employers' plans to reopen their facilities after months of pandemic-related lockdowns are protocols for screening and testing workers, as well as making sure they are social distancing to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus throughout the workforce.

As employers work through how to implement those concepts, many are considering a range of smartphone apps and other technologies from third-party providers that have been developed to help make new workplace safety procedures as efficient as possible.