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