...Privacy laws and Policies XCOM / 285 04/08/12 After reviewing the Electronic Reserve Readings for our class and reading the classmates threads, I feel that communication privacy laws and policies are necessary in the work place. In this day and age of electronic communication it is very important for an employer to be aware of what an employee is doing on company time and with company property. As law suits are rampant, it is important for a company to protect itself and its employees. If an employee is sending potential sexually offensive material or just offensive material on company time and company property it is important for a company to be able to monitor and stop this action or be held accountable. In some companies an employer needs to be able to monitor an employee for sharing trade secrets and information that could potential harm or cause a loss in revenue. I however feel that it is of utmost importance for each company to determine how much surveillance is needed, with in the guide lines of the law. As brought out in our reading “The erosion of employee privacy by such practices as electronic monitoring and surveillance, however, comes at a cost in the form of increased stress and decreased employee morale, satisfaction and trust in their organization and management (Hornung 2005; Lee and Kleiner 2003). The Constitution’s fourth amendment also protects against “unreasonable search and seizure.” So with in each company a balance needs to be taken to protect themselves...
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...I investigated the Staples’ privacy policy listed on their website. The fact that a privacy policy can even be found highlights the Notice principle of the AICPA’s Trust Service Principles. The Notice principle designates that a company should inform its customers of how it collects, protects, and uses the data it gathers. Staples’ privacy policy also covers the Choice and Consent principle. It various methods of opting out of receiving Staples’ marketing emails, or communications from third-party vendors the company is affiliated with. The policy also detailed the various types of customer information they collect such as name, phone number, and email address. It also mentions that this information is gathered through purchases, catalog requests,...
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...Prior to research and class discussion on communication privacy laws and policies in the workplace, I though that it was an invasion of employee’s privacy. After researching employer and employee views on the topic, I am for the policies and laws regarding workplace communications. Although employees should have privacy, many U.S. companies are implementing workplace monitoring, consisting of recording telephone calls, viewing e-mails, Internet connections and employee computer files (E-Monitoring in the Workplace, 2006). Because many companies rely on technology to complete jobs, employers must protect their assets as well as ensure their employees are productive. The federal legislation protects both the employee and employer under the Electronic Communications Act (ECPA). When an employee is at work he or she is operating a piece of technology owned by the employer. The employer provides the technology to the employee to conduct business for the company, not for his or her own personal use. The ECPA states an employee is entitled to privacy, but an employer does have the right to monitor employee communications to ensure he or she are conducting business and not placing the company at risk (E-Monitoring in the Workplace, 2006). If an employer discovers an employee is conducting a personal conversation, the employer must stop the surveillance and give the employee privacy. The purpose of workplace communication policies and laws is to protect the interest of the company and...
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...think workplace privacy laws and policies about monitoring emails, phone calls, and computer use should be in place within a company. The employer should be sympathetic and open to potential disagreements and questions which the employees may have about the reasons behind the workplace communication privacy laws and policies, including the protection of both the employer and the employees, the regulating state and federals legislations, the compliance expectations, and the potential consequences of non-compliance (Wakefield, 2006). When a company monitors its employees without employees being aware of it, it can bring down company moral and overall productivity. When the employees are aware from the start of employment that they will be monitored and communication privacy laws and policies are in their code of conduct the employees and the company can benefit from the program. The workplace communication laws and policies are viewed as ethical practice to protect the employee and the employer. Company use these laws and policies to monitor misuse of company transmissions such as: emails, internet use, telephones, and computers. Employees in turn need protection from employers who get in the way of employee privacy. Without the use of communication privacy laws and policies, employee may not be aware of what is acceptable use of company equipment. References Axia College of University of Phoenix. (2010). E-Monitoring in the workplace: privacy, legislation...
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...XCOM285 December 21, 2012 University of Phoenix Privacy Laws and Policies Debate I have looked at both sides of the argument when it comes to communication privacy laws in the workplace. There are some good points to monitoring employees, that I read about such as “using monitoring as a positive aid for training, improving service, ensuring compliance, protecting employees, customers, and so forth, and to assist in fairly evaluating employee performance.” But If I have to choose a side I would go against monitoring employee’s computers, listening in on calls, and video surveillance. I think my biggest concern is the fact that many employers will go too far. There will be no privacy at all for the employee in the workplace, except in the restrooms. I think this total lack of privacy and lack of trust shows an employer has no respect for the employees. Employers need to consider the effect such monitoring has on their employees since employee and employer attitudes about monitoring often diverge. There should be a pretty good battle over this issue, what with so many people being concerned with their privacy, but on the other hand so many companies making big money on software that is used to spy on a companies’ employees. Software manufacturers in 2004 expected the sale of computer monitoring and surveillance software to businesses to increase from $139 million in 2001 to $622 million in 2006 (Wakefield 2004). There aren’t any constitutional or federal...
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...Having worked in transportation and having worked for the Chamber of Commerce in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the position taken of the debate on Communication Laws and Privacy Policies is almost a mute decision. Regrettably the decision would be for employer monitoring. The posts from my fellow classmates in this debate seem strongly one sided and rightfully so. The reasoning and ever growing technology and types of ongoing ways to improve surveillance for monitoring employees simply leaves the debate being for such laws and surveillance. In the first segment of the Electronic Readings “Privacy, Legislation, and Surveillance Software” It mentions the 4th Amendment of the Constitution, “the rights to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.” The explanation of why this amendment cannot interfere with the rights of employers to protect the interests of their property as well as protecting their investment in their employees. This statement and the exceptions provided by the Electronic Communication Privacy Act leaves little if any room to debate this topic. With companies losing billions of dollars a year in loss of productivity, law suits and sabotage employers have every right to protect their assets. I believe employee monitoring goes deeper than just monitoring employees and the implications of mis-handled information via internet. There have been too many scandals referring to this type of illegal mis-handling such as Wikileaks. If this type of mis-handled information...
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...Privacy Laws and Policies Patricia Tabor XCOM/285 June 2, 2012 Mary Laurenzi Privacy Laws and Policies The laws I looked at were somewhat vague, I discovered that each case is different and is dependent on not only whom you work for, but also the individual employee polices of the company. It is fairly clear that most employees feel that have a right to some privacy in the workplace however more and more often this is not the case. Federal and State employees are somewhat protected by the Fourth Amendment’s right to unreasonable search and seizure. According to E-Monitoring (2006) even this line of defense is limited and not clearly defined. The employee must pose a reasonable expectation of privacy and the offence must be highly offensive to any reasonable person. This is where I see trouble for each person is different and what might be objectionable to one might seem reasonable to another. Private-sector employee must look to other pieces of legislation to offer them aid. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) is a piece of legislation put forth by the Federal Government to protect the privacy of employee’s; there are however three major exceptions that can effect an employee’s right to privacy. These exceptions are the provider, the ordinary course of business, and the consent exceptions. The provider exception states that if the equipment or service is provided by the employer than it can be monitored by said employer. The ordinary course of business...
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...Privacy Policies and Laws Debate XCOM/285 Essentials of Managerial Communication When thinking about privacy laws and policies, it is safe to clearly state that I am for them. Many people feel that some employers go over board when it comes to this kind of thing but in this age of technology, having privacy polices is not only right it is essential to maintain the respect of the people who work for and with people. There is much evidence that even with privacy policies in place the some employees still use company communications for personal use. There is no clearer evidence of this than that fact the government had to pass laws of privacy laws to protect companies that felt they needed to watch their employee’s use of their communications for any personal use of company communications. These laws were passed so angry employees who were caught using company communications for private things could not go back and sue companies for invasion of their privacy. The ironic part of employees getting upset over what they perceive as an invasion of their privacy is the fact most companies make employees sign privacy agreement policies and then get angry when they get caught breaking them. Privacy policies are not just to protect employers from employees using their communications for private business, but privacy policies are needed to protect companies from viruses that can come in through private emails or...
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...WARSAW SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS Internet privacy policy: violations and regulations. Social media context Natalia Wójcik Index number: 51149 1 TABLE OF CONTENT 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………….3 2. Theoretical background…………………………………………………………...4 3. E-commerce and e-marketing influence on privacy violations…………….5 4. Social networking, Web 2.0……………………………………………………….7 5. Social media privacy policy………………………………………………………8 6. Privacy policy concerns based on a particular social media example….13 7. Process of implementation of social networking regulations…………….17 8. Conclusions and final remarks…………………………………………………22 9. Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..24 2 1.INTRODUCTION Throughout the last 20 years the role of the Internet has grown enormously is every individual’s life. The Internet has its roots in 1960, when the US government attempted to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks. However, the beginning of the worldwide process of Internet expansion may be dated to 1980 and was triggered by the development of new networking technologies and mergers of many less significant networks with the financial support of the National Science Foundation and other private commercial funding. This led to further advancement in technological improvements and their incorporations as well as wider participation of ordinary users all over the world. The Web rapid expansion reaches back to the 90’. According to the Internet World Stats:...
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...College Research Paper Trust and Privacy By Ian Hunt Access to HE. Media Studies. CJC3FH001A Unit Title: Independent Study HC7/3/WW/081 Course Tutor: Patrick Peiro. Completed: 14th April 2010 College Research Paper Contents 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Key Questions 2.0 Methods 2.1 Primary Research. 2.2 Facebook Privacy Questionnaires. 2.3 Internet research from Facebooks own Help and Information pages 2.4 Confirm the validity of information obtained on Facebooks pages from alternative Internet resources. 2.4 Privacy issues and guides sourced from Library sources. 3.0 Results & Discussions 3.1 Facebook a short History 3.2 Survey Results 3.3 News Media discussion on Privacy/Trust 4.0 Further Discussion & Conclusions 4.1 Privacy 4.11 Facebook Adverts 4.12 Facebook Applications and 3rd Party Applications 4.2 Trust 4.3 Recent Events Regarding Privacy 4.31 What has not changed? 4.4 Final conclusions 5.0 Bibliography 6.0 Appendix List of illustrations’ Fig 1: Total Internet Usage Fig 2: Targeted advertising Fig 3: Advertising Demographics Fig 4: Age related targeted advertising Fig 5: Online gaming advertising Fig 6: Facebook Applications and 3rd Party Applications Fig 7: New Privacy Announcement Fig 8: New Privacy Update Fig 9: Privacy Sharing Fig 10: Privacy Search 1.0 Introduction Is the growth in Social Network websites a good thing? With new services from Google and Microsoft soon to join the established social networking sites Myspace...
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...Check Point - Privacy Laws and Policies Debate For Class XCOM 285 By Hannah Hansen Intro In this paper I am going to talk about the polices and producers that companies put into place in order to protect their investment in their personal computers. Most employees do not understand the risks that companies face by allowing their employees to use personal email and telephones on company time. I will be talking about why these procedures and protocols are in place. We will be looking at three different aspects of protection over emails, telephones, and then computers in general. Computers Many people forget that companies put procedures in place about computer use because of the misuse that some employees of that past have done. The company’s best interest is protecting itself and its clients. To do that they must be able to make sure that the employees who are working for them are doing everything above board. They do this through monitoring employee activity and also by making sure that the computers employees use are not used for employee personal use. If employees use the computers for personal use then they would be able to electronically email important information outside of the company walls where it is not protected. In his article Mitchell R.B. talks about employee types of theft when he says; “other risks may occur as employees use electronic communication systems to download programs and files: violation of copyright laws, vulnerability...
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...use, and privacy policies What are the e-mail, Internet use and privacy policies at your job? The e-mail use at my job is that it can’t be used for personal use, but only company business. Internet use at my job is definitely for business use only. At my job I can’t get on it to shop or pay bills, but only for company business. The privacy policy is your own personal information that you allow your company to have, but you still have right’s. The company can not disclose any of your information. The privacy policy can also help protect you against internet fraud, make sure your computer is safe, and also protect you and your personal information. What are the current laws regulating employee e-mails and internet privacy? One law is the at-will law. This law gives an employer the right to relieve an employee of duty with any explanation what so ever. The employer does not need a reason, you can show up for work one day, and they can let you go without any explanation. Another law is when a company does not allow a union in the company. A union can prevent a employee from being relieved of duty without any just cause. With a union there has to be a valid reason for letting an employee go. Employees have constitutional rights to privacy; it cannot be invaded according to the law. Most companies have the right to retrieve your e-mail and internet use. Why do companies implement e-mail and internet use policies? Most companies implement e-mail and internet use policies because...
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...money and have many user’s, Facebook have more user’s privacy data and more Facebook knows about you it make Facebook serve more relevant advertisement that they are giving users data to the company as their research for the advertisement because the main revenue for Facebook it’s from advertisement and Facebook servers would keep user information permanently whenever the user has deleted their account. Facebook does not have diverse array of hot new gadgets or a full inventory of software for sale; instead, it has your personal information, and the information of hundreds of millions of others with Facebook accounts. Facebook can serve ads using highly specific details. For example, an Atlanta woman who posts that she has become engaged might be offered an ad for a wedding photographer on her Facebook page. However, Facebook’s goal is to get it users to share as much data as possible, because the more Facebook knows about user, the more accurately it can serve relevant advertisement to users. The only option that user have is that Internet companies should be forced to ask for permission before using user’s personal information and want the ability to opt out of online tracking. Ethical dilemma in this case study is Facebook monitors its subscribers and then sells the information to advertisers and app developers. 2) What is the relationship of privacy to Facebook business model? The relation between user’s privacy and Facebook business model is important because Advertising...
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...Privacy and Policy By Amanda Mullens Heales Computer Ethics 324 Professor Abedin May 2, 2012 Abstract Can we protect ourselves on the internet? Although the internet is a wonderful place to shop, explore and interact with other people we should always keep our guard up, to protect our privacy. Privacy and Policy Many services are very diverse, so sometimes additional terms or products may apply. Terms of Service for You Tube/Google states that using services do not give you ownership of any intellectual property rights in content you access. And you must obtain permission from its owner or are otherwise permitted by law. Many terms do not grant you the right to use any branding or logo’s used in services. Privacy policy for MySpace describes that use and sharing of personally identifiable information (PII). You must obtain written permission from the member directly. Profile information in a member profile is provided at his or her sole discretion. Facebook privacy states that you must respect others people’s rights. That member will not use Facebook copyrights or trademarks without written permission. Members are not allowed to infringe others peoples intellectual property rights. Or your account will be disabled. If you collect information from users including video, you must obtain their consent and must state clearly what information you are collecting and why. Facebook has changed its privacy policies making information more public...
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...CIS 324 | | Examples of Privacy Policies: The Comparison of Large Websites versus Small Websites | By | Arlene Mack | April 15, 2012 In this paper I will discuss and summarize the privacy policy for a large popular website, as well as summarize and discuss the privacy policy for a smaller website. I will discuss as a large website, is, money mutual or (moneymutual.com), a website that promotes same day, pay day loans by multiple financial lenders endorsed by Montel Williams. The privacy policy and practice of the websites that this privacy document links are reviewed and hosted by Trustee. This is in compliance with Trustee’s program requirements, including transparency. The parts of the Privacy Policy that are confusing to me, is the reference to the policy compliance being transparent to accountability and choice regarding the collection of people’s information; but it says the Trustee’s does not cover information that may be collected through downloadable software. Trustee, who defines itself as the independent party to accelerate online trust among consumers and organizations globally through its leading privacy Trustmark and innovative trust solutions; Trustee at the end of the privacy policy does say that it has the right to share, rent, sell or otherwise disclose your information with/ to third party in accordance with applicable laws; i.e. marketing services, and applications, email marketers, wireless services, or postal mailings. In my opinion that...
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