Surveillance In The Workplace

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One of the major issues confronting employees in the workplace today is the use of electronic surveillance. Some people believe that electronic surveillance is necessary to ensure that employees are being productive members of the workplace. Others, however, feel that employees should have a reasonable expectation of privacy while on the job. This paper will discuss two of the more common types of surveillance that is used in the workplace, computer and video surveillance. It will discuss the benefits of each method as well as the arguments against, and why both methods are necessary for information security. It will show that computer and video surveillance are not only necessary to protect the company and the employees but confidential business and customer data as well.
By definition, electronic surveillance is “observing or listening to persons, places, or activities—usually in a secretive or unobtrusive manner—with the aid of electronic devices such as cameras, microphones, tape recorders, or wire taps” (“Electronic Surveillance”, n.d.). With the advance in technology however, the ways a person can conduct surveillance in the current day and age goes much deeper than just using a video camera or microphone. If a company wanted to, they could track virtually every aspect of an employee’s day. Whether it is as simple as tracking the time an employee arrives at work or as advanced as GPS tracking in a company phone to follow their exact location throughout the day, workplace surveillance is not going away anytime soon.
Workplace surveillance can take place in many forms but they fall into four main categories. These are data surveillance, visual surveillance, audio surveillance, and tracking surveillance (United Nations office...

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...l and ethical reasons. Employers are allowed to review work related documents and emails but if an employee sends a personal email through a work computer, managers are not supposed to read the email and have a duty to stop reading it once they realize the email is not work related.
By using computer and video surveillance, small businesses with only one or two workers per shift can monitor their employees just like a big business with hundreds of workers. From something as simple as signing into work to prove that an employee is there to accessing documents on a work computer, surveillance is necessary to protect the confidentiality of customer data, improve customer interaction, protect employers from theft or lawsuits, and maintain integrity of data. Electronic surveillance is not a new phenomenon and in this day and age, it is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

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