Privacy is considered by many to be the most important legal issue of the 21st century. With the explosion of communications technology since the late 20th century, privacy laws regarding cell phones, text messaging, emails, and voicemail are still very rudimentary where they exist at all. Workplace privacy may be one of the stickiest areas regarding privacy law, as a line is yet to be clearly drawn dividing employer rights from employee privacy.
Most often, workplace privacy issues swirl around the controversy of how closely an employer can monitor its employees. Some companies have invested considerable time in creating privacy guidelines meant to explain exactly what is and is not allowed in terms of monitoring, but these guidelines are almost never legally binding. In some cases they may even be used to create a false sense of security among employees. Most experts suggest avoiding the whole messy business of workplace privacy by never using company computers or cell phones for anything other than company business, but various complications can still ensue, resulting in legal consequences.
In most places, employers have the right to listen to phone calls, read email and text messages, and even monitor workplace conversations. Information gathered from this monitoring is used to measure employee efficiency and performance. Some companies may put safeguards on company property to prevent misuse, such as blocking certain websites or forbidding downloads of anything not related to company issues. Yet even if a company states that employees are allowed to use computers and other property for personal use, there is legal precedent showing that employers can lie about policy and monitor personal activity regardless of claims or policy to the contrary.
Company ethics policies further complicate issues of workplace privacy. Some companies require that employees sign agreements that stipulate ethics both in and outside of the workplace. Arrests, recreational drug use, or even legal activity such as drinking may be used as grounds for firing or punishing an employee, even if the activity occurred outside the workplace and had no bearing or ill effect on job performance.
Workplace privacy is a vitally important issue across the modern world. While employers certainly have a right to maintain office efficiency and prevent misuse of company time, employees continue to have legal or constitutional rights to privacy even while in the workplace. Discovering the balance of employer versus employee rights is a major area of debate throughout the legal world. Until rights are specifically enumerated by legal systems, it is perhaps wisest to keep all personal business away from the office whenever possible.
