Download - Little brother is watching you
LITTLE BROTHER IS WATCHING YOUThe legal and ethical issue of employer’s looking over the shoulder of their employees.
Jeff Linton
THE ISSUE Little Brother
Database of 45,000 web sites Employers monitor their employee’s internet
usage. Productive, nonproductive or neutral Provides employee ratings Block objectionable web sites Remotely enter employee hard drives Read employee email Find deleted emails
THE LAW 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act,
“illegal for unauthorized individuals to look at someone else’s email,” but the Act exempts service providers from these provisions.
Santa Clara University Professor of Law Dorothy Glancy "Often, court opinions take the point of view that when
the employees are using employers' property—the employers' computers and networks—the employees' expectation of privacy is minimal.”
THE LAW
Example: man fired for inappropriate emails to his supervisor
about management. claimed his rights were violated because the company
promised him his emails were private.
courts ruled in the company’s favor “The company's interest in preventing inappropriate
and unprofessional conduct outweighed the man’s privacy rights.”
CASE FOR WORKPLACE MONITORING employers can use the software to find and delete games
that employees have downloaded or installed so….. No issue with employers expecting computers they
provide for work to be used for work so… Big deal employers look through employee internet
browsing history to see if they are spending their time on work- related activities?
Nielsen Media Research: employees at major corporations such as IBM, Apple,
and AT&T logged onto the online edition of Penthouse thousands of times a month.”
CASE FOR WORKPLACE MONITORING Employees using email to steal key information from
them: The article cited a man who was caught emailing his personal email
account $5 million bytes of company source code on company products. It was found out he was doing this to bring it to a rival company of which he was leaving to go work for!
Being sued for inappropriate work atmospheres due to inappropriate emails. Sexual / Racial Jokes Pornography in emails
CASE AGAINST WORKPLACE MONITORING Employee writes a note to her boyfriend, puts it
in an envelope, affixes her own stamp, and drops it in the outgoing mail
Fact that the pencil and paper she used belong to her employer give her boss the right to open and read the letter?
Is this so different than the employer looking into email just because they own the computer?
CASE AGAINST WORKPLACE MONITORING As long as their internet usage does not
interfere with the job The time management spends monitoring
employee usage is just as much a waste of time While employee computers are being
monitored, who is monitoring management’s computers?
CAN THERE BE COMMON GROUND? Employers:
honest up front about how much “computer privacy” employees will actually have.
Employees: If told up front and not OK with it, go somewhere else
Survey of employees: Most employees heard about their e-mail policy by word of
mouth or were involved in the writing of the policy.
MY OPINION No problem
Keep the big picture in mind. If employee is looking at pornography,
then yes, I deserve to have consequences.
If it is shown that employee has spent time on ESPN.com, and work is getting done, then who cares!
MY OPINION Companies need to take a look at worker
productivity in terms of the work that is assigned to employees.
If they see someone is getting their job done but has spent hours on non- work related sites, then give them more work to do, not fire them!
Management should not be allowed to look at employees’ email unless it is needed in some sort of legal issue.
ARTICLE Miriam Schulman, Santa Clara University http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v9n2/
brother.html