PRIVACY
BEAT: Watchful
Eyes in the Workplace:
A Majority of Companies are
Monitoring Their Employees' Actions
Email
has revolutionized the workplace, making the transfer
of documents, projects and ideas possible with
the click of a mouse. It also presents employees
with the almost irresistible temptation to carry
on personal correspondence at work. If you think
your boss doesn't know what's in those personal
emails, think again.
According
to the American Civil Liberties Union, some 50
million  Americans
are being electronically watched at work. A 1999
survey by the American Management Association
found that at least 27 percent of corporations
check employees’ email, and 45 to 50 percent electronically
monitor communications and performance. When all
forms of electronic surveillance are considered,
almost seven in ten US companies are watching
their workers.
What
are they looking for? Too much time spent browsing
the Web. Using corporate assets such as the computer,
phone and email system for private purposes. Surfing
porn sites on company time. Passing corporate
secrets to outsiders.
Where
are they looking? Technologies range from automated
scanning of emails for key words, to software
that counts and records each employee's keystrokes.
Your
boss could be recording your telephone calls,
rummaging through your electronic files, monitoring
your voice mails, emails and faxes, and even using
special software to capture images from your computer
screen as you work, all without your knowledge.
According the AMA, surveillance is highest among
the financial industries and real estate firms,
and is also prevalent among professional services
firms, wholesalers and retailers.
Employers
have the upper hand.
Employers
argue that such surveillance is necessary to ensure
workers are being productive, are not stealing from
the company and are not betraying the company to
competitors. After all, they are paying for the
computer, software and Internet connection, not
to mention your time. When employees know they are
being watched, goof-off time decreases, as does
industrial espionage.
And besides,
such surveillance is perfectly legal. The 14th
Amendment to the US Constitution does provides some
privacy rights to employees, and the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act extended the prohibition
on wiretapping to the interception of private email.
Yet these laws are rarely enforced, and don't seem
to apply to workplace email systems. Consider the
following cases:
In 1993,
Nissan Motor Corporation was sued by the former
managers of its email service, who were terminated
because Nissan found emails they considered critical,
inappropriate and lewd on the service. The court
upheld Nissan's right to fire the operators, finding
that the company owned the emails and therefore
had a right to read them.
In 1994,
the California Court of Appeals dismissed the case
of former Epson email administrator Alana Shoars,
who was fired for refusing to go along with management
surveillance of employee email. Management had previously
told her to assure workers that their email was
confidential. The court found that Shoars did not
have enough evidence to support her claim.
And in
1996, a U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania ruled
that Pillsbury was within its rights to fire an
employee after intercepting “inappropriate and unprofessional
comments” that the employee had emailed to his supervisor.
Pillsbury won the case even though it had assured
workers that emails were confidential and would
not be used to fire someone. The decision effectively
set a precedent that corporations were not legally
bound to honor their electronic privacy policies
towards workers.
Your employer's
right to monitor you can extend even to your home
office. The work of telecommuters who dial into
the company network from home is fair game for employer
snooping. If the telecommuter’s computer is furnished
by the company, the employer owns it and everything
on it.
Email
and Web surfing have become part of our everyday
lives. Just as you will probably make a personal
phone call during the business day, it's also reasonable
to expect that you will want to send some personal
email and check out the Internet between nine and
five. Follow these suggestions to protect your privacy
while you're at work:
- If
you must check and send personal email at work,
set up a separate email account. There are several
free Web-based encrypted email services, such
as our own PerfectlyPrivate
Email service. Investigate how these products
work, and choose one that’s right for you.
- If
you conducting personal browsing at work on
your lunch hour or during breaks, use an anonymous
browser. These programs are often free and
serve as a filter between the sites you visit
and your computer, hiding your digital trail
from both online trackers and your network administrator.
- Use
a digital track cleaner
to permanently delete old emails and confidential
files, as well as erase your cookies and browser
cache. Not only do these products protect your
privacy, they also free up valuable hard drive
space.
- Read
your employer’s privacy policies, and find out
if those policies have been put to the test.
Remember, just because your company has a privacy
policy doesn't mean that they have agreed to
respect your privacy, or that they are legally
bound to follow that policy.
- Use
common sense. The best way to protect your privacy
and prevent possible retribution from your employer
is to avoid the problem in the first place.
Conduct your most sensitive correspondence from
your own home, using a secure Internet service
provider.
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