One of the complaints levied against wellness programs is that companies are asking for too much information, and via devices that track sleep, movement, and other data, are in a position to know even more.

It’s a violation of privacy, the faulters fume, and it is, at least, a loss of privacy. It’s only a violation if one is required to use such a device, or is coerced into “choosing” to.

The latter half of that sentence, about coercion, is a real and present issue. Some companies have sought to penalize employees who wouldn’t participate in wellness initiatives while rewarding those who do. Seems to me, incentives for some are de facto penalties for others, since there’s one pie for health expenses, and if you’re charging some people less, then others are paying more to make up for it.

The question of violation is also rich. I would argue that the vast measure of what constituted one’s privacy a generation or two ago is not just dead, but desiccated, destroyed, and long since dumped in the dustbin.

But it was doomed not primarily by violation, but by treat. The question is hardly ever, “May we violate you?” Rather, it’s “would you like this attractive bauble we’re offering you?”

As Bruce Schneier (left) pointed out during a presentation in March to the Commonwealth Club of California, imagine if the government mandated that everyone would have to buy and carry a device that recorded their location at all times. The uproar would never end, right?

And yet, just about everyone has a cellphone, which is that device! Toll transponders, too: We give our location data in exchange for getting into a shorter line.

Grocers used to print circulars with coupons that offered savings — that were wasted on the vast majority of people who received them. But now they hand out cards that deliver those savings, at a cost of telling the company exactly what we buy. That’s data on us, a commodity the grocer can sell to whomever it wants. They know what we buy, where we are, who we’re with. So what part of privacy is left?

I don’t like that my privacy has been pulverized. I don’t like that I’m complicit in the act, or that I can be bought off so easily. But we all have been. So please don’t try to argue against corporate wellness initiatives on the basis of privacy. We’ve given that away for a lot less than the chance to be more well.