Employee Privacy Rights

Overview

In many ways electronic privacy and corporate rights in the workplace are related and dissimilar.  A person’s privacy should extend throughout his or her life, from the privacy of his or her home to the professional environment of the workplace.  Privacy involves the right to exercise control over your personal information.  Privacy protection imposes restrictions on the collection, storage, use, and dissemination of personal information.  Electronic or “new surveillance” is more extensive, decentralized, involuntary, and invisible.  Electronic privacy is posed largely as a problem on the Internet.  Expectations of privacy in the workplace may not be the same as elsewhere.  Employees are not necessarily entitled to a reasonable expectation of privacy in the workplace, particularly in the context of nonoccupational activities. 

Ease of Surveillance Today

Powerful computers and high-speed networks simplify the electronic monitoring and tracking of people’s activities.
·        Computers have removed the ability for individuals to control the ways personal information is used
·        A gradual erosion of privacy has begun to evolve and effects of the “little brother” is taking over electronic interactions

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)

EPIC is a public interest research group that advances civil liberties in the electronic age

EPIC Model Privacy Code for the National Information Infrastructure:
·        The confidentiality of electronic communications should be protected
·        Privacy considerations must be recognized explicitly in the provision, use, and regulation of telecommunications services
·        The collection of personal data for telecommunications services should be limited to the extent necessary to provide the service
·        Service providers should not disclose information without the explicit consent of service users
·          Service providers should be required to make known their data collection practices to service users
·           Users should not be required to pay for routine privacy protection
·        Additional costs for privacy should be imposed only for extraordinary protection
·        Service providers should be encouraged to explore technical means to protect privacy
·        Appropriate security policies should be developed to protect network communications
·        A mechanism should be established to ensure the observance of these principles

Internet

Rules of conduct now found in legislation will not be sufficient to protect privacy.  Microsoft, the giant software company stunned the business world when it announced that it would not sell data about customers to MSN.  From internet interactions, privacy policies will be heavily discussed and new privacy policies will emerge.
·        The existing Internet builds upon existing communications networks
·        Computers sift through names, addresses, and telephone numbers provided by company sponsors to generate lists for businesses and marketing efforts
·        New policies will extend the privacy laws that are already in existence in other countries

Online Networks

Online privacy is currently a heated topic.  Interest in privacy and other consumer issues in cyberspace have become very important topics.  Consumer education is essential to protection consumer privacy in online environments.  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will address the following issues for online networks:
·        Consumer expectations for their personal and transactional information
·        Consumer control over personal and transactional information
·        Appropriate users of consumer information, including transactional and personality profile information by online service providers and content providers
·        Consumer consent requirements
·        Access and correction opportunities for personal information on the nets

Workplace Privacy

Privacy in the workplace is a controversial issue.  The expectation of privacy in the workplace man not be the same as elsewhere.  Employers hire an employee to do a job and to perform necessary services.  An employer has a right to monitor an employee’s performance.  Employers need to monitor employee’s performance and have access to information that must legitimately be related to employment purposes.

Employee Monitoring

The tradition of employers watching over employees has changed with an increase in technology.  The ability to monitor email, phone conversations, voicemail, and instant messages has decreased the privacy of employees in the workplace.  Monitoring employees electronically allows employers to probe more deeply into the employee’s lives.  Bosses are able to watch work habits more closely than ever before.
·        Increasing levels of stress and decreasing motivation and trust result from the excessive monitoring of employee work
·        Employee’s feeling are related to dignity, trust, respect, autonomy, and individuality
·        Invasions of privacy occur and employees feeling change
·        Employees feel that self-worth, morale, and overall quality of working life are eroded
·        Negative impact of invasions of privacy on work quality and productivity is hidden human and real cost, not often calculated by employers

Other Means of Workplace Privacy Invasion

Employers monitor the activities of their employees is to covertly access their electronic mail (e-mail) communications. People operate under the mistaken belief that e-mail is confidential and secure.  Staff should be informed about the realities of e-mail security.
·        Employers have a right to see what their employees are doing and how they are spending their time on the job
·        Employees should be told this is happening and how it is happening
·        The security of e-mail is similar to a postcard: both are open and accessible to being read by third parties
·        Staff should be aware of the employer’s expectations of its use in the workplace
·        Written policies should lay out the rules that everyone must follow
·        Employees should have input when the policy is being written

Electronic Communications Privacy Act

This act offers protection for recorded electronic communications.  The law permits employers to monitor employee’s telephone conversations for the purpose of ensuring that they are courteous and competent.  Listening to personal conversations has not been found permissible under a federal appeals court ruling.
·        Intentionally intercepting voice mail messages at the workplace should be regarded as an invasion of privacy unless you work at a company where personal calls are prohibited
·        Staff and management together should develop a policy covering the use of voicemail interception if a business must engage in this type of monitoring

Links of Interest

Workplace Surveillance Report

News Story: In October, 2001 California Governor Davis Vetoed an E-Mail Privacy Measure