Dive Brief:
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In an email to Retail Dive, Wal-Mart denied reports that it is discouraging employees from downloading WorkIt, an application developed by workers advocacy group OUR Walmart that employs IBM’s artificial intelligence bot Watson to answer questions about the retail giant's labor policies.
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The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Wal-Mart is urging workers against using the WorkIt app, which leverages Watson machine learning tools to help employees better understand their benefits, rights and other labor issues.
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According to a internal Wal-Mart memo acquired by The Wall Street Journal, store managers contend that OUR Walmart (which is not officially a labor union) is “increasingly trying to get our associates to turn over personal information to the union by using deceptive and slick-looking social media and mobile app.”
Dive Insight:
In an email to Retail Dive, Wal-Mart Stores said employees can choose for themselves whether to use WorkIt, but want to be sure they realize it’s not an official Wal-Mart app, and that Wal-Mart has its own WalmartOne app for accessing company resources, employee information and social interaction tools.
“This is a very busy time of year for our associates and they are receiving a lot of information from a lot of different sources,” Wal-Mart spokesperson Kory Lundberg said. “While they are focused on delivering a great holiday experience for our customers we want to make sure they know this app is not affiliated with Walmart. Our associates already have anytime-access online to the company’s most current and accurate Paid Time Off policies and there is no way to know if the details this group is pushing are correct.”
Wal-Mart also said the WorkIt app poses potential privacy issues for workers. “Our people are smart and see this for what it is, an attempt by an outside group to collect as much personal and private information as possible,” Lundberg told Retail Dive. His statement didn't not address the internal memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal, however.
OUR Walmart admits it is keen on amassing data about Wal-Mart’s policies and workers’ experiences, but notes that users of the WorkIt app can sign in anonymously; only their handpicked usernames are visible. In addition, there's no sharing of contacts or location data, and photo sharing is optional. (OUR Walmart developed WorkIt in partnership with Quadrant 2, a New York City-based company that has designed software for companies and activist organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, which has worked to increase online privacy and transparency.)
"Because [WorkIt is] an app from an outside group, people won't know what data and private information they collect or how they plan to use it," Lundgren said. "The WalmartOne app does not track people's social interaction — it connects people to the WalmartOne site, which works like any other social site — people can post new topics, comment on anything on the site, etc."
Still, it's a rare app that doesn't collect information from users; usually it's a question of how upfront a company, organization or developer is about what exactly that entails. As of press time, Wal-Mart has not disclosed to Retail Dive whether WalmartOne collects user information in any way.