Gig economy firms under fire for ruling by algorithm

uberUber, Deliveroo and other gig economy employers stand accused of exploiting data protection and employment laws by using “unfair and opaque” algorithms to determine how work is allocated, what it is worth and even whether workers should be fired.

A new study by campaign group Worker Info Exchange claims the rapidly expanding global gig economy has led to employees being “profiled and managed” by unaccountable and complex data systems.

When behaviour considered unusual is flagged, the “burden is placed on workers to prove they have done nothing wrong,” researchers found, even though they are unaware of what “measures, metrics or rules they are evaluated against”.

Worker Info Exchange also claims the Government’s data protection reforms will “hobble transparency rights while stripping away current protections from automated decision-making”.

According to the DCMS consultation document, “Data: a new direction”, human review of automated decisions made by AI could be scrapped.

Worker Info Exchange has launched a joint campaign with Privacy International and the App Drivers & Couriers Union (ADCU) to put pressure on employers such as Uber, Just Eat, Amazon Flex, Bolt and Deliveroo to end their surveillance of workers.

Lead report author Cansu Safak said: “Gig platforms are collecting an unprecedented amount of data from workers through invasive surveillance technologies. Every day, companies make allegations of ‘algorithmic wrongdoing’ which they do not offer any evidence for.

“They block and frustrate workers’ efforts to obtain their personal data when they try to defend themselves. This is how gig platforms maintain exploitative power.”

Privacy International legal officer Dr Ksenia Bakina warned that algorithms are seeping into more and more workplaces and could affect all workers’ futures.

She added: “There is already an inherent power imbalance between employers and workers. The power imbalance is being magnified by the invisible data collection and opaque decision-making.”

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