Yes seriously, if used properly
If you are not getting your arse off your chair at least once in an hour you are a candidate for any or all of the following - heart disease, back problems and stomach/intestinal problems (both lack of motion and you are most likely snacking at your desk). On top of that, if you want to produce really high quality code, art, writing, etc taking a short break once in a while, putting that keyboard down and thinking is a good idea. If you do not, you produce "binge code" - just ask those of us who have debugged it.
If your company _REALLY_ values you, it should use these stats and have in first instance the health and safety guy have a chat with you. In some instances, where "binge work" is observed and has to be cleaned up by other people after you there is nothing wrong to use these for enforcement too.
In the days when I ran IT/Build and DevQA in an SME, I used to get the same info out of surveys + machine activity reports DIY-ed using perl and fed off the mouse + kbd interrupt stats + X idle. Anyone who was glued to his desk ended up having a conversation with one of the people who did the H&S rota.
I would have shelled for this gadget without a second thought if it was available. Exactly because we tried to value our developers (at least until the VCs came in and told us to fire half of them and hire an Indian contractor).
So instrumenting a desk like this has its uses and tweaking AC, heat, light, etc are actually secondary - the primary is workforce health.
If the company used those for "hours enforcement" and/or "hot-desk occupancy stats" instead, I agree - that is someone being an idiot. Plenty of those in management around this part of the world unfortunately. Their slave trading Georgian ancestors would have been proud.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
