Intelligent working environments, handling of medical data and the ethics of human resources

Abstract

The development of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) will radically transform our everyday life and social representations. These transformations will notably impact the working environment. The objective of this paper is to offer a first survey of the main ethical issues raised by the development of intelligent working environments (IWEs). It especially focuses on the capacity of such environments to collect and handle personal medical data. The first section describes the features of intelligent environments in general and presents some of their applications at the workplace. The second section of this paper points out some of the main ethical issues raised by these environments and their capacity to collect and handle medical data. The third and final section attempts to offer some elements of reflection regarding the ethical principles that should guide the development of IWEs in the future. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.