Updated September 2025. An overview of current U.S. public policy that regulates employers’ use of digital workplace technologies.

Our program regularly compiles policy and research updates related to technology and work. See below. New material will be added every few months.

Op-ed by Kung Feng and Mishal Khan argues that in debates about how AI could impact workers in the years to come, it is essential to pay attention to the wide range of concerns that worker organizations have about technology adoption, as well as the alternative vision they are putting forth.

AI in the workplace isn’t just automation. Workers report discrimination, intensified workloads, and even automated firing. New state policies aim to center workers, write Mishal Khan and Annette Bernhardt in this Tech Policy Press article.

A first look at labor’s vision of what the future of AI and digital technologies should look like.

It is our assessment that the current proposed regulations do not provide the protections that consumers and workers deserve under the CCPA and that the law itself clearly intended.

A searchable inventory of contract provisions from over 175 union agreements showing how collective bargaining has been used to address workplace technologies, protect worker rights, and shape technology adoption, use, and oversight.

Joint letter in response to the California Privacy Protection Agency’s May 9, 2025, request for comments on the most recent draft of proposed regulations for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Accessible, non-technical FAQ answering common questions about AI and other digital technologies in the workplace, how employers use them, and how workers are impacted.

Joint letter providing recommendations in response to the California Privacy Protection Agency’s request for comments on proposed regulations for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Workers at large businesses in California have basic rights around their worker data under the California Consumer Privacy Act, a groundbreaking data privacy law. Because of its potential value for workers and worker advocates, we explain in this toolkit the process for workers to access their data.

This post explains the the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s new guidelines that employers must follow when they use algorithmic scores or background reports generated by third parties to make employment decisions.

Prepared Testimony by Dr. Annette Bernhardt, Director, Technology and Work Program, UC Berkeley Labor Center for the Joint Informational Hearing, California State Assembly, Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection and Committee on Labor and Employment. August 7, 2024, Sacramento, CA.

Joint letter providing input on the California Privacy Protection Agency’s current rulemaking for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which will detail a set of important worker rights and employer responsibilities for the use of data-driven technologies in the workplace.

Prepared testimony by Annette Bernhardt, presented at “California at the Forefront: Steering AI Towards Ethical Horizons,” Joint Informational Hearing by the CA Senate Governmental Organization Committee and the Senate Budget Subcommittee on State Administration and General Government. February 21, 2024, Sacramento, CA.