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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1468646
This article is part of the Research Topic World Health Day 2024: Frontiers in Public Health presents: "My Health, My Right" View all 10 articles

Behind the Good of Digital Tools for Occupational Safety and Health: a Scoping Review of Ethical Issues Surrounding the Use of the Internet of Things

Provisionally accepted
Maéva El Bouchikhi Maéva El Bouchikhi 1Sophie Weerts Sophie Weerts 1Christine Clavien Christine Clavien 2*
  • 1 Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 2 Institute For Ethics, History, and the Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The internet of things (IoT) is increasingly used for occupational safety and health (OSH) purposes in private and public organisations. Current practices and regulations are unclear, and some stakeholders raised concerns about deploying this technology at work. Following the PRISMA-ScR checklist, we reviewed the main opportunities and ethical issues raised by using IoT devices for OSH purposes, as discussed in the academic literature. We searched peer-reviewed papers from 2008 to September 2023 up to 2008, written in English and available in "Web of Science", "PhilPapers", and "Google Scholar". We found 1495 articles, of which 61 fulfilled the selection criteria. We classified ethical topics discussed in the papers in a coherent description frame, composed of 6 overarching categories: "ethical opportunities", "surveillance and problematic data re-purposing", "difficulty to inform, consult, and obtain consent from employees", "unintended and unpredictable adverse effects", "suboptimal data management", and "external factors that are conducive to ethical issues". The resulting list of problematic issues is unexpectedly furnished and substantial. Such a list provides information and guidance for those who wish to develop evaluation frameworks in line with a preventive regulatory approach. It also informs policymakers and practitioners about the governance of such tools for ensuring more OSH.

    Keywords: Internet of Things, ethical issues, Occupational safety and health, opportunities, surveillance, adverse effects

    Received: 22 Jul 2024; Accepted: 13 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 El Bouchikhi, Weerts and Clavien. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Christine Clavien, Institute For Ethics, History, and the Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.