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Discussion 149 professionals with diverse backgrounds. Common backgrounds include the HRM and psychology backgrounds that have historically been present, but also backgrounds in statistics, methodology, psychometrics, econometrics, physics, computer science and other quantitative fields. Moreover, in order to bring their projects to a success, people analytics teams will likely draw on the expert knowledge of professionals in fields such as information technology, communication, legal, and/or change management. This cross- disciplinary nature of applied research such as people analytics thus has the potential to decrease the borders between functional disciplines in both science and practice. 7.3.3 Privacy, Compliance, and Ethical Issues Privacy can be defined as “ a natural right of free choice concerning interaction and communication […] fundamentally linked to the individual’s sense of self, disclosure of self to others and his or her right to exert some level of control over that process ” (Simms, 1994, p. 316). People analytics may introduce privacy issues in many ways, including the data that is processed, the control employees have over their data, and the free choice experienced in the work place. In this context, ethics would refer to what is good and bad practice from a standpoint of moral duty and obligation when organizations collect, analyze, and act upon HRM data. The next section discusses people analytics specifically in light of data privacy, legal boundaries, biases, and corporate social responsibility and free choice. 7.3.3.1 Data Privacy Technological advancements continue to change organizational capabilities to collect, store, and analyze workforce data and this forces us to rethink the concept of privacy (Angrave et al., 2016; Bassi, 2011; Martin & Freeman, 2003). For the HRM function, data privacy used to involve questions such as “ At what team size can we use the average engagement score without causing privacy infringements? ” or “ How long do we retain exit interview data? ” In contrast, considerably more detailed information on employees’ behaviors and cognitions can be processed on an almost continuous basis these days. For instance, via people analytics, data collected with active monitoring systems 17 help organizations to improve the accuracy of their performance measurement, increasing productivity and reducing operating costs (Holt, Lang, & Sutton, 2016). However, such systems seem in conflict with employees’ right to solitude and their freedom from being watched or listened to as they work (Martin & Freeman, 2003) and are perceived as unethical and unpleasant, affecting employees’ health and morale (Ball, 2010; Faletta, 2014; Holt et al., 2016; Martin & Freeman, 2003; Sánchez Abril, Levin, & Del Riego, 2012). Does the business value such monitoring systems bring justify their implementation? One could question whether business value remains when a more long- term and balanced perspective is taken, considering the implications for employee attraction, well-being, and retention. These can be difficult considerations, requiring elaborate research and piloting. 17 Continuous collection, storage, analysis, and reporting of data on employees' activities related to, for instance, presence, e-mail, browsing, or performance behaviors.