Essay on Privacy and Technology in the Workplace

The US constitution does not out rightly protect the right to privacy. Therefore, it remains the discretion of the Supreme Court to determine its breach or otherwise. The court determines privacy-related cases based on the context in which the privacy infringement claim relates to other explicitly related laws such as data protection (Hansson & Palm, 2005). In any organization or business, the employer reserves a mandate of ensuring that human resource is adequately harnessed to ensure optimum productivity. I believe that this primary responsibility expects managers to extensively monitor workers while at the same time balancing it with their need for privacy (Hansson & Palm, 2005). By accepting a recruitment within any employment environment, the workers submit to the need for teamwork, efficiency, supervision and any other regulations thereto that result in the achievement of corporate goals. Therefore, I think that as long as the monitoring of individual workers activities within a firm does not undermine their constitutional rights to confidentiality, employers have an obligation to supervise as well as monitor them.

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Traditionally, organizational equipment is supposed to be used solely for its activities unless otherwise duly accepted by the management. In light of this, monitoring their use by employees not only makes the organization proactive in managing its assets but also preserves the integrity as a legal entity (New York University Annual Conference on Labour (199-7) et al., 2010). For instance, an errant worker may wrongfully use an institutions computers to share wrong information such as pornographic films which may harm the general reputation of the firm. Some of the mechanisms for monitoring operations of workers while at workstations include video surveillance, global positioning systems, undercover operatives, electronic and voice mails.

Employers must establish the extent and means through which employee monitoring is done to avoid lawsuits arising from violation of the civil right of confidentiality (Workplace Privacy and Employee Monitoring | Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, 2017). Each technology used in monitoring employees must be temporally and spatially feasible. For instance, GPS is best for mobile equipment such as a corporate van. Video surveillance is necessary for restricted areas such as office premises while undercover is good for activities conducted both inside the premises and outside (Hansson & Palm, 2005).

I think that since the equipment is company owned, the employer should have adequate obligations to monitor their use after work but with necessary safeguards to prevent abdicating the rights of workers. Practically, an employer should ensure that equipment is used for organizational success at all times. For instance, some employees may want to use the corporate van to transport passengers which undermine the actual spirit of professionalism (Hansson & Palm, 2005). Despite the need for these rights of accessing information about property use by the employees, it is important that the management notifies them of such a process before being given any property for use.

References

Hansson, S. O., & Palm, E. (2005). The ethics of workplace privacy. Bruxelles: PIE-Peter Lang.

New York University Annual Conference on Labour (199-7), Nash, J. R., & Estreicher, S. (2010). Workplace Privacy: Proceedings of the New York University 58th Annual Conference on Labor. Austin [Tex.: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, Kluwer Law International.

"Workplace Privacy and Employee Monitoring | Privacy Rights Clearinghouse," (2017). Workplace Privacy and Employee Monitoring. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. (2017). Privacyrights.org. Retrieved 9 January 2017, from https://www.privacyrights.org/consumer-guides/workplace-privacy-and-employee-monitoring