Privacy at work

Employees privacy

In these days one of the main questions that big companies ask themselves is to choose between security, effectiveness and economy or human rights, privacy and human development.

As global economies are brought together through the internet, new concerns are created for businesses. Several concerns have been raised regarding employee privacy while using company email or surfing the internet while at work. Each employee is given access to company issues computers and equipment, and give guidelines concerning the acceptable usage while accessing the company’s assets. This article will talk about why companies implement internet and email usage policies and the assumptions employees make about their privacy while at work.

Employers implement and monitor policies regarding internet and email usage in an effort to address the concerns that exist as part of the business. A couple of the concerns they give are; employees are paid to work to not surf the internet or that work email is not being used to offend other employees within the organization. “In lawsuits alleging sexual harassment or discrimination, judges have permitted into evidence inflammatory emails of a racist or sexual nature as well as email requests to a human resources director on how to avoid a wrongful termination claim when firing an older employee.” (Find Law, n.d., p. 1) With the fear of archived emails or internet use coming back to haunt them, companies implement policies in an effort to eliminate their commitments to future lawsuits.

            When employees begin working with an organization, understanding what types of communications can be monitored will be important to avoid future problems. Email, internet browsing, and even telephone conversations are the most commonly monitored communications. Employees make the assumption that their email, computer files, or internet use is private because the information is protected by a password. “If you're sending email at work, your boss can legally monitor it, and if your company becomes involved in a lawsuit, your adversary has the legal right to review it.

In summary there are a lot of implications in this topic because the employers are always going to be worried about how are the employees wasting their time, and the employees are always going to fight for his right to privacy.

References

FDIC (n.d.). Privacy Act. Retrieved Sept. 19, 2009, from http://www.fdic.gov/about/privacy/responsibilities.html

Find Law (n.d.). Email Privacy. Retrieved Sept. 19, 2009, from http://public.findlaw.com/internet/email-privacy.html