(Photo: Sohu)

A sanitation company in East China  have removed the alarm function of smart watches sanitation workers wore after the move sparked outrage among Chinese netizens over privacy issues.

With the function, the watches give off an alarm to alert sanitation workers to return to work if they were monitored not moving for more than 20 minutes, local media reported.

The watch can also locate the workers and reports automatically to managers if the workers leave the working area during office hours. 

The function was designed to help manage workers and motivate them, which is an assessment criterion on sanitation workers, administration staff of the Jianhuan sanitation company in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province was quoted as saying by a Jiangsu City Channel report.

The company had equipped more than 500 sanitation workers in the Jianye district with the watches since March. They also equipped some workers in Gulou district with the watch last year, according to the staff, thepaper.cn reported.

The company had also asked workers to install a smart managing app on their mobile phones, which will record their location and movement. 

The location system only works during work hours, which will not infringe on workers' privacy, the staff noted, adding that no worker had been punished for information provided by the watches so far. 

A sanitation worker told the Jiangsu City Channel that he felt monitored and not free after wearing the watch, while others said the watch did not affect them.  

However, most Chinese netizens condemned the company of treating its workers like "prisoners." Zhang Xinnian, a Beijing-based lawyer told the Global Times on Sunday that the watches' monitor function violated the workers' privacy.