Employee privacy on computers in the workplace Research Paper

Employee privacy on computers in the workplace - Research Paper ExampleSuch policies mean that it is becoming increasingly more unvoiced to define where personal privacy and eavesdropping laws end and the rights of the employer being with respect to monitoring any and all forms of electronic communication that the employee might engage in small-arm employed. Accordingly, the purpose of this essay is to provide a thoughtful commentary on key issues relating to privacy and employer rights with respect to the issues at hand. Furthermore, the analysis will seek to elevation some key questions with reference to what the technological outgrowth evidenced within the past few years portends for the employment frontier. Firstly, it should be understood that the technological development that has taken place within the past few decades has made a profound and lasting impact on the way that firms surveil and monitor their employees. previous to this technological revolution, the ways in whi ch an employer could surveil an employee legally were quite limited. Privacy laws dictated that electronic eavesdropping by means of a microphone or the give of a hidden camera was illegal. As such, the level to which an employer could ethically, morally, and legally gain a spirit level of evidence with regards to what activities and thoughts the employee sh atomic number 18s within the company, among personal friends, or any a nonher(prenominal) such activities is brought clearly into focus. The true crux of the matter is not the circumstance that the employer will be able to gain a high degree of inference with regards to the potential unethical or illegal activities in which the employee might be engaging rather, it has been proven statistically that a high percentage of emails and correspondence that are done at work are of a personal nature. Naturally, such correspondence put a burden on the sender to understand and make headway that the privacy of these communications is suspect due to the terms of the confidentiality agreement and terms of electronic communications that they have agreed to however, there is a small degree of moral burden on the part of the employer as well to actively seek to purposefully disregard such personal conversations as long as they do not represent a breach of contract or any form or manifestation of illegality (Detterman 980). Yet, the issue with such an approach hinges upon the fact that the employer will not be painstakingly reading each and every correspondence generated by the employee. Unfortunately, privacy laws or ethical considerations cannot guarantee that this will not be the case. Although this essay has spoken primarily about the privacy concerns that employees might experience as a function of having their employer read their correspondence, it would be remiss of this writer to discuss this situation fully without offering advice for a simple way in which the employee can work to avert many of the negative r epercussions of over-aggressive privacy policy (Evans 1116). Once the employee signs on the dotted line and accepts the fact that the employer can monitor their activity and communication via the devices that are utilized within the workplace setting, virtually no privacy whatsoever exists within these mediums. As such, it is the strong recommendation of this author that the employee be ever-mindful of the lack of rights they possess while utilizing the employer