Sensors Can Read Your Sweat and Predict Overheating, Here’s Why Privacy Advocates Are Worried

On a hot summer day in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, dozens of men removed pipes, asbestos and hazardous waste as they cleaned up a nuclear power plant and prepared it for demolition.

Dressed in head-to-toe coveralls and respirators, the crew members working in a building without power had no visible relief from the heat. Instead, they wore bracelets that recorded their heart rate, movement and exertion levels for signs of heat stress.

Stephanie Miller, a safety and health manager for a U.S. government contractor doing cleanup work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, watched a nearby computer screen. A color-coded system of ...