Some companies are tracking workers with smartphone apps. What could possibly go wrong?

When Myrna Arias discovered that her employer could track her movements even when she was off duty, she disabled the GPS-enabled app on her company-issued smartphone. That got her fired, according a suit filed by Arias. In the lawsuit, Arias, a former sales executive for international wire-transfer service Intermex, claims that her boss "admitted that employees would be monitored while off duty" and even bragged about being able to track her driving speeds. She was "scolded" for disabling the app and fired not long after despite strong performance in other parts of her job, according to the lawsuit. The privacy implications of that kind of 24/7 monitoring "would be highly offensive to a reasonable person," according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the Superior Court of California.

Companies are increasingly using GPS-enabled technology to track their employees when they are not in the office. This type of tracking is common in vehicles, but is increasingly being used through smartphones, too. "Employers have legitimate reasons for monitoring their workers, but all too often we see that kind of tracking spilling over into the private parts of their lives," said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union. There currently aren't many guidelines for when it is appropriate to track employees physical location, he said, but the information that can be pieced together from constant monitoring can be incredibly personal.