The Impact of Privacy Rights on the Employees in a Business Organization
Gerios Figueredoz
Business Law BUS 221
Professor John R. Malthus
December 16, 2008
The Impact of Privacy Rights on the Employees in a Business Organization
Technological advances of the two decades and more specifically the transformation of traditional information systems into information technology in the business environment in recent years have caused a growing concern about the privacy rights of employees. Technological advances in information and communications allow employers to access information on current and potential employees at an unprecedented scale. A survey of nearly a thousand large companies conducted by the American Management Association in 1999 found that 45 percent monitored the e-mail, computer files, and telephone calls of their workers. The central issue compromising employees’ privacy rights is the electronic surveillance or “monitoring” in the workplace, many without warning. Americans are concerned that business organizations and government will intrude on their privacy, whether legally or illegally.
In recent years, employee privacy rights have increasingly become the subject of debate and litigation. On the growing controversy and the impact that litigation and legislation can have on organizations and their employees some individuals and groups are seeking to establish fundamental regulations in the workplace to protect their privacy.
Workplace Monitoring:
Substantial developments in workplace technology over the past two decades have dramatically transformed today’s workplaces. Production rates have gon ...