Rob Roy MacGregor
July 27th, 2005, 01:35 PM
Workplace privacy? Forget it!
By Amy B. Crane • Bankrate.com
Many Americans take their right to privacy for granted. But most don't realize that this right doesn't extend into the place where they spend most of their waking hours: their workplace.
"There is very little, if any, privacy in the workplace, particularly in the private sector," says Jeremy Gruber, legal director of the National Workrights Institute, an advocacy group for human rights in the workplace. "Privacy is one of the most-violated principles in the American workplace. People are aware to a degree how much monitoring goes on in the workplace, but most individuals are unaware of how pervasive the lack of privacy is."
Monitoring employees electronically and in other ways is a growing part of the way American companies do business, according to the 2005 Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance Survey, conducted by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute. According to the survey, which was released in May 2005, 76 percent of employers monitor workers' Web connections, while 50 percent store and monitor employees' computer files.
Other types of monitoring at work can include:
keyboard keystroke monitoring
reviewing and storing employee e-mails and instant messages
monitoring time spent on the phone, numbers called and actual taping of conversations
video surveillance
drug testing
satellite technology to monitor use of company cars, cell phones and pagers
"There are three main reasons employers monitor employees: legal liability issues, employee productivity and security breaches," says Nancy Flynn, executive director of the ePolicy Institute. "For example, e-mail creates a written business record, and employers are becoming increasingly aware that e-mail and Internet activity is the electronic equivalent of DNA evidence. If a company is sued or investigated by a regulatory agency, you can take it to the bank that e-mail will be investigated and subpoenaed."
Continued Here (http://www.bankrate.com/nsc/news/advice/20050718a1.asp)
.
By Amy B. Crane • Bankrate.com
Many Americans take their right to privacy for granted. But most don't realize that this right doesn't extend into the place where they spend most of their waking hours: their workplace.
"There is very little, if any, privacy in the workplace, particularly in the private sector," says Jeremy Gruber, legal director of the National Workrights Institute, an advocacy group for human rights in the workplace. "Privacy is one of the most-violated principles in the American workplace. People are aware to a degree how much monitoring goes on in the workplace, but most individuals are unaware of how pervasive the lack of privacy is."
Monitoring employees electronically and in other ways is a growing part of the way American companies do business, according to the 2005 Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance Survey, conducted by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute. According to the survey, which was released in May 2005, 76 percent of employers monitor workers' Web connections, while 50 percent store and monitor employees' computer files.
Other types of monitoring at work can include:
keyboard keystroke monitoring
reviewing and storing employee e-mails and instant messages
monitoring time spent on the phone, numbers called and actual taping of conversations
video surveillance
drug testing
satellite technology to monitor use of company cars, cell phones and pagers
"There are three main reasons employers monitor employees: legal liability issues, employee productivity and security breaches," says Nancy Flynn, executive director of the ePolicy Institute. "For example, e-mail creates a written business record, and employers are becoming increasingly aware that e-mail and Internet activity is the electronic equivalent of DNA evidence. If a company is sued or investigated by a regulatory agency, you can take it to the bank that e-mail will be investigated and subpoenaed."
Continued Here (http://www.bankrate.com/nsc/news/advice/20050718a1.asp)
.