The article named “Workplace Privacy” discussed the topic in vivid detail while supplying logical statistics and claims. The debate is about supporters, who want rights in the workplace, as well as the critics, who believe it is important to monitor the workplace in order to eliminate potential problems. A poll was conducted in July of 2007; the results showed that nearly half of employers monitor workers emails alone. Additional evidence reveals that about a third of company’s assign an employee the task of monitoring workers. So far it seems as if the critics have been getting their way. This leaves supporters with an unanswered question, what rights should employers have when it comes to monitoring the workplace?
When it comes to the workplace
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According to “Workplace Privacy”, “disputes are resolved using some combination of federal, state and common law” (Workplace Privacy). This is what upsets workers; they want specific laws in place in order to protect their own privacy. Employers are concerned about workers wasting time; it can potentially hurt the company’s profit and even distribution. Critics claim, “Employers have a legitimate right to oversee the workplace activities of their employees. In the absence of monitoring, employees tend to waste company time by making personal phone calls or aimlessly surfing the Internet” also known as ‘cyber slacking’” (Workplace Privacy). Due to past history on the subject, employers have been winning the debate so …show more content…
With how common the use of electronics is today, especially in companies, it is likely for them to store this sort of info on a computer. Sense some employees will have access to this; there is a chance of company info being leaked or identity theft. A large portion of companies authorizes its employers to accept payment information over the phone. If the phones and computers were not monitored it would be easy for a worker to write the information down themselves and use it later. Thumb drives with company records on them should be required to stay in the workplace. All it takes is for one employee to take one home and transfer sensitive information onto their own computer, then it would be likely the information would be leaked. This may not seem important, but records that contain company’s plans, or even stock market information are vital to a company’s growth. If the public knows this information they could use the ideas of the company for their own financial gain. Tracking all computers, phones, and thumb drives that carry crucial company information should always be
In Fitbit for Bosses written by Lynn Stuart Parramore she talks about how bosses want to start monitoring their employees. Parramore shows her discomfort with this idea. She thinks that “big money seems poised to trump privacy”(Parramore). Which basically just means that for bosses is that money is over everything even privacy. Allowing bosses to monitor their employees is dishonest and manipulating.Some researchers have also found out that increasing surveillance has caused the decrease of productivity. Researchers warned them that the data can have big errors and people that look at the data that the fitbits can cherry-pick the information that supports their beliefs and ditch the rest of the information that leads to racial profiling. “Surveillance makes everyone seem suspicious, creating perceptions and expectations of dishonesty.” Workers will become dehumanized“(Parramore), it prevents them from experimenting and exercising the creativity on the job.” A woman from California filed a suit against her former employer because he forced her to to install a tracking app on her phone. She had to have it on her phone 24/7 or else she would
Collecting personal data about people is an invasion of privacy. Certain personal info such as birthday, age, social security numbers, license plates. and gender should be kept out of reach. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, in Jersey City (with a population of 250,000), 10 million license plates numbers were stored as of August 2012 (“You Are Being Tracked.”). The policy states that these license plates are stored for 5 whole years (“You are Being Tracked)! Also, employers have access to private information such as credit card, bank, and medical records (“Unauthorized Transmission and Use of Personal Data”). Why should employers be able to get all of this data? You might think that employers should be able to get these facts because they have a right to know who their future employees are. However, employers also have access to your medical records (“Employment Background Checks: A Jobseeker’s Guide”). How is your medical history even relevant to whether or not you should get a certain job? Collecting data on innocent people is definitely an invasion of privacy.
Employee Monitoring: Is There Privacy in the Workplace? . (6/3/2004)
Sometimes there is no middle ground. Monitoring of employees at the workplace, either you side with the employees or you believe management owns the network and should call the shots. The purpose of this paper is to tackle whether monitoring an employee is an invasion of privacy. How new technology has made monitoring of employees by employers possible. The unfairness of computerized monitoring software used to watch employees. The employers desire to ensure that the times they are paying for to be spent in their service is indeed being spent that way. Why not to monitor employees, as well as tips on balancing privacy rights of employees at the job.
Privacy and Rights In The Work Place. Houston: University of Houston, College of Business Administration, 1998.
Certain states have laws that make sure employers tell potential employees that they survey the internet at the business. The state of Connecticut law “Conn. Gen. Stat. 31-48d†requires employers that monitor any electronics to “give prior written notice to all employees who may be affected, informing them of the types of monitoring which may occur.†States are taking action to be able to protect their businesses while also warning employees that it’s happening, which seems like a good idea. Those states should be a role model for the federal government to
One type of surveillance is employee monitoring. Many employers monitor their workers’ activities for one reason or another. Companies monitor employees using many methods. They may use access panels that requires employees to identify themselves to control entry to various area in the building, allowing them to create a log of employee movements. They may also use software to monitor attendance and work hours. Additionally, many programs allows companies to monitor activities performed on work computers, inspect employee emails, log keystrokes, etc. An emerging methods of employee monitor also include social network and search engine monitoring. Employers can find out who their employees are associated with, as well as other potentially incriminating information. (Ciocchetti)
Over the past few years, technology has grown to be the driving force in human productivity and efficiency. Technology has been incorporated into our everyday lives to help us perform daily activities and bridge long distance communication. Although technology has brought us many advantages, it has also created quite few ethical issues along the way. Some of the biggest ethical issues technology has created revolve around cell phones. These issues include cell phone tracking and using the cell phone to cheat. Cell phone privacy can be compromised in many situations regarding phone call tracking and messaging. Cell phone use is also starting to be abused by students and other test takers to cheat on tests. Even if the person has good moral standards, sometimes the right decision to make is not always clear.
The company was able to find out the activities of the employee during work hours by entering the employee’s office and made copies of the information stored on the hard drive of the
As society has progressed, there have been many new innovative and unbelievable developments in almost all aspects of life that have ultimately created an impact. More specifically, advancements in technology have rather had a much larger and intense impact on society as it continues to grow. Technology has allowed for many great and useful applications that has made life much easier and convenient. However, many aspects of technology have given a rise to a number of social and ethical issues, causing numerous debates and concerns. One of the more prominent concerns deals with the issue of privacy rights.
Employers can create complex problems when they monitor employees. Should employers be able to monitor their employees? If so, what should they be restricted to monitoring, and do the employees have the right to know that employers are monitoring them. Each of these questions creates a multifaceted response from both the employer’s side, as well as the viewpoint of the employee. (http://www.iiakm.org/ojakm/articles/2013/volume1_2/OJAKM_Volume1_2pp44-55.pdf)
An example of the pros and cons of privacy in the work place while during the hiring process is in 2012, a company in Maryland decided to ask job seekers to log into personal profiles and search through wall posts. As this is becoming more of trend many creative ways to monitor the posts. Another example within this sector is the athletic program at the University of North Carolina, “Each team must identify at least one coach or administrator who is responsible for having access to and regularly monitoring the content of team member social networking sites and postings”
In Australia, Employers should implement best practice on how to maintain privacy in the workplace in accordance with the privacy standards set out in the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) (Welcome to the Fair Work Ombudsman website. n.d.). Privacy is able to keep our own personal information private and also able to do things without any electronic monitoring in the workplace. Nowadays, many company increased the usage of technology such as internet and email in the workplace. This can create issues in privacy. When employees’ access to web browsing activities during working hours, the employer can be scrutinized it. Employers take this action due to fear lawsuit if employees act in inappropriate ways. Therefore, the best policy is to explain clearly how is appropriate to use email and internet at work and outline what type of use is prohibited in the workplace. Besides that, employer also needs to ensure the employee didn’t disclose or disseminate any important information to the competitors or
One particular crime that could be committed by employees who use the internet at work is hacking. Hacking is one of the most well-known types of computer crimes, in this context, the term refers to the unauthorized access of another’s computer system (HG.org Staff, 2015). This means that if the employee in not allowed to use the internet, for personal use, than there is a possibility that they could get charged for such crime. Because the policy will state they do not have the authority to access the organizations computer system for personal use. In addition, they must know that all use of computers systems while at work will be monitor, including e-mails. Piracy and cyber terrorism are other crimes that one can face when using a computer
Lawyers Weekly jan. 2005: N.p. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. . Staff, Proquest. At Issue: Technology and Privacy.