Employee Privacy Report

It is the rare employee in any industry today, who does not use e-mail or the Internet during his or her workday for a business, and sometimes personal, purpose. Many employees make comments or reveal information through their e-mail messages that they may prefer their employers not know about. Other employees may use the Internet to search for jobs, shop, or do other things they also would not want their employers to know about. Many of these employees may not understand or care about their employers’ privacy policies nor understand the legal standards that apply to employee privacy and just assume that what they do on their PCs at work is private. They are wrong, however. “Employee workplace privacy rights are virtually nonexistent in private-sector employment” and it is estimated that “up to 92% of private-sector employers conduct some type of electronic surveillance on their employees” (Employee Workplace Privacy Rights, 2010).