Privacy vs. Monitoring: Employers’ and Employees’ Rights

When it comes to employers’ and employees’ rights in the office, both are on fair levels. A boss cannot harass his employees, and the same applies vice-versa. They are both allowed to maintain some sort of personal privacy, as well. However, once an employee enters the digital world in their computer, does this change? It most certainly does.

An employee is at a slight disadvantage when using their workplace’s computer. While visual and listening devices placed amongst an employee’s workplace must be installed according to laws and regulations, anything that goes down within a computer at the office is fair game to an employer. There are virtually no laws regulating the way an employer privacy_monitoring can monitor their employees’ computer activity.

In a national survey, nearly 80 percent of employers admitted that they use some sort of tactics to monitor their employees use on the computer. There are some states where legislation asks an employer inform his employees that he can access what has been happening on an employee’s computer, though.

There are several things that can be monitored through a computer system. Most use specially configured software that will track specific stats logged through the computer, which can then be accessed remotely by the employer themselves. This type of software might be key-logging software. Key-logging software can not only track what is being typed, but how fast an employee is typing, as well. This can be a tool to measure an employee’s efficiency for the employer; however the use of this type of software promotes carpal tunnel syndrome and stress-related disabilities.

Another type of computer monitoring software can track internet usages, and block programs, services and website deemed inappropriate for the workplace. These types of software are useful for the employee as they, once again, can be used to manage employee efficiency, as well as tracking exactly what their work computer is being used for.

While heavily unregulated, there are some terms that employers must follow. Unions set rules against computer monitoring in some instances. Approximately three-fourths of all employers monitoring their employees let them know beforehand, which is not only beneficial for the employee, but it is also a show of justness.