Thursday, February 18, 2016

Employers Are Quietly Using Big Data to Track Employee Pregnancies


It's legal, but is it ethical? 

Having a child is one of the—if not the—most life-changing moments in life. And while we’d all like to think that day a woman finds out she’s pregnant is a happy one, it’s often accompanied by hours of agonizing about when to break the news to her employer.

Questions like, “What if this gives them an excuse to fire me?” and “What if they pass me up for this promotion?” may creep into her mind, despite the explicit laws that protect against pregnancy-related discrimination.

But what if an employer were find out that an employee is pregnant before she’s ready to disclose that information? While that sounds like it should be illegal, it isn’t—and it’s happening right now, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Health care analytics companies can mine workers’ medical claims, pharmacy claims, and search queries to figure out if an employee is trying to conceive or is already pregnant. One such company is Castlight Health CSLT 8.82% , which counts major employers such as Walmart WMT 0.32% and Time Warner TWX 2.15% among its biggest clients. 

Click here for the full article.

Source: NBC News/Fortune

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