Employee Privacy in the Workplace

Employee Privacy 1

Employee Privacy in the Workplace:

Do you think Employers go Overboard?

Employee Privacy 2

Privacy in the Workplace:

Do you think Employers go overboard?

As traffic on the "information superhighway" continues to explode a number

of wondering questions about the use and abuse of these information

networks arises. One issue of primary concern is whether the current

law provides adequate protection for the employees right to privacy in the

workplace from threats posed by computer technology, electronic

, video and sound recording equipment, and databases filled

with personal information. What are the guidelines for an employees' right

to privacy in the workplace? Do think employers go over board?

What would you do if you called a company or a business for their

services only to discover after they were in your home, they were not

legit and scammed many other people and was not able to meet the

guidelines they promised? Then realizing all would have been prevented

if you had checked their background work credentials.

Many employers in today workplace have a fear of this same scenario.

The only difference is instead of being a business or company it's their

employees. Employers have rights to personal information concerning their

employees, they need to know who they are hiring. They need to know

whether their employees can provide the work that's expected of them.

Employee Privacy3

People still expect to have some privacy even if their are at their

place of employment. At the same time, it's normal that working for

someone will mean that you must give up some privacy, but employers

can balance their Ð''need to know' policy with their employees right to pri-

vacy, by giving assurance that the personal information will be appro-

priately used.

But the chances for violating privacy are more than ever before,

e-mail monitoring, web browsing, video surveillance, personal files makes

it easier to for employers to get unlimited information, here Rivenbark

states:

The Supreme Court has broadly defined privacy as the right of the individual to control the

dissemination of information about oneself. Privacy as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution

in two significant ways from privacy protected by tort law: the types of acts constituting an

invasion of privacy are very different, and the type of protection provided to individuals Ð'-

constitutional privacy protects against governmental intrusion while tort law primarily protects

against invasion by private parties. Fourth Amendment privacy rights only apply in those

situations where the government is the primary actor, however it encompasses government

employees and some government contractors whose activities might be considered as state

action.

Some employers prefer to simply ban all non-employment related use of its

computer system. At minimum, an employer should warn employees that it claims

property rights over all data stored in the workplace computer system.

Employee Privacy 4

In most cases the employer owns the computer network and the

terminals, which makes it unconditionally accessible to him/her at any

time. Employees do have some protection from electronic eavesdropping

under certain circumstances. Based on Woods research he states:

A