What happened
- On August 7, Chile’s Labor Directorate (Dirección del Trabajo, DT) published Ordinance No. 2000-49883/2026 on artificial intelligence and workplace control mechanisms.
- The ruling analyzes a fatigue, drowsiness and distraction detection system based on continuous, automated analysis of the driver’s face.
- The DT said a measure of that intensity can disproportionately affect fundamental rights such as privacy, intimacy and psychological integrity.
- It also established that processing images, facial features and data linked to facial recognition requires reinforced safeguards.
- Among them it mentions a defined purpose, limited access, custody, confidentiality, retention only for as long as necessary and secure deletion.
Why it matters
- For Chilean companies, the discussion about AI governance is no longer a corporate presentation imported from Europe. There are already local administrative criteria that apply to specific monitoring systems.
- The case also shows that “safety” doesn’t work as an automatic permit. A system can pursue a legitimate goal and still be disproportionate because of the intensity of the surveillance.
- This especially affects human resources, logistics, transport, security and productivity solutions that process biometrics or infer a person’s states. Buying the software doesn’t settle the legal question of whether it should be used.
The number
August 7, 2026: the date of the Labor Directorate’s ruling.
Context
Chile is also preparing for a more demanding personal data protection regime. That makes it more important to distinguish between adopting AI and having a legitimate, proportionate and documented basis for processing the data that AI needs.
What’s next
- Companies using automated monitoring will have to review the purpose, proportionality, access and retention of data.
- Vendors will have to explain more precisely what their systems capture and what inferences they make.
- Enforcement in practice will remain decisive: the DT made clear it doesn’t grant a general prior authorization for these mechanisms.
Workplace AI is usually sold as a layer of efficiency. In Chile, that layer already comes with a condition that is much less marketable and much more important: fundamental rights are still underneath.
Sources
- Dirección del Trabajo de Chile, August 7, 2026: https://www.dt.gob.cl/legislacion/1624/w3-propertyvalue-195151.html