Protecting Worker Health Data Privacy From The Inside Out

This article investigates three new opportunities for complementary public, private, and design-centric protections of worker health data, an overlooked yet critical area of data privacy regulation. The expansion of biometric monitoring, of the $50 billion femtech industry, and the commercial value of health data also underscore the need for greater protection of worker health data. Now that states are developing more comprehensive data privacy laws, it is critical to consider innovative solutions that build on the best of these laws nationwide. Especially after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, the health data of women workers has become especially prone to misuse.

This article proposes a three-part solution to protect worker health data more effectively. First, privacy by design requirements used for protecting children’s data should be adapted to limit the unprotected health data that apps and websites store. Next, the U.S. should adopt a federal law comparable to the California Privacy Rights Act to limit the collection and use of worker health data. Finally, incentives should encourage employers to offer enhanced privacy protections to their workers as a perk, for competitive advantage, and as a novel form of corporate social responsibility.