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 even worse emails with traces that can get into a company’s personal files which can contain customers personal information up to and including credit card or bank account numbers. There are people who will say that there is no harm in checking your email or visiting you social networking site from work, but there is too much at risk when you think about the other information that company’s computers can contain to take even the slightest risk that an employee could accidently either allow a virus in or be talking on the phone an let slip some kind of confidential information. There simply is not excuse for breaking a company’s privacy policies and I believe that when companies have these in place they have very good reasons and any employee should not be upset if they are caught breaking them. After reading some articles on this subject I found out some pretty interesting information. When the government passed the Electronic Communication Privacy Act EPCA), there is only one clear way an employer is protected under it. They have to be the owner and sole provider for the phone, internet, and email services for their company in order to be completely covered by this law (Nord, McCubbins, and Nord 2006). Now when a company gets their phone, internet, and email from a third party provider, protection provided by the ECPA is not so clear cut. However the general policy is that if the employer is providing these communications for their company and the fact the most courts give a very generous interpretation of this law means that even if there is a case when a company may back this law very really do companies lose because the courts look at this law as things that happen during the normal course of business ( Nord, McCubbins, and Nord 2006). So basically companies can get away with the privacy policies they have even if they do not meet the letter of the law which in turn makes it much easier for employers to access employee’s computer, phone, and other communications to make sure no privacy policies are being broken. Now to just touch on the other side of this issue, I found an article titled, The Boundaries of Privacy Harm. This article was about the legal issues that can come from privacy laws and policies are used to hurt people (Calo, 2011). The examples that were in this article are very clear examples of how invading a person privacy can be a huge problem. Like a landlord who eavesdrops on his tenants without their knowledge, identity thief, and leaking classified information about an undercover agent (Calo, 2006). These are very clear problems that can come from people invading other people privacy. The issue about privacy harm some say does not exist and others say that it does. The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that the issue of what is or is not an invasion of someone’s privacy is a long way from being resolved. There are many different opinions about what is and what is not invading ones privacy but the fact remains when you are doing something at work or in any place you know that your being monitored, it is you responsibility to make sure you are doing what is allowed by that company. Private business should never be taken care of at work and I believe that employers have a right to make sure their employees are not abusing their communication services. If you willing sign paper work that saying you willing agree to abide by whatever a company’s privacy policies are, then you should not be shocked to find out that your employee is watching to make sure that you keep you word to them and to any of the people you work for or with.

References:
Locker, K., & Kienzler, D. (2008). Business and administrative communication (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Nord, G. Daryl, McCubbins, Tipton F. & Nord Jeretta Horn (2006) E-monitoring in the Workplace: Privacy, Legislation, and Surveillance

Calo, Ryan M. (2011) The Boundaries of Privacy Harm, Indiana law Journal