There’s No Privacy At Work

Filed in archive Privacy Issues on July 5, 2010

© kiwanja

Do employees have privacy rights in the work place? Well according to a case eventually settled by the Supreme Court, there is no such thing as right to privacy at work.

Just so you know, this case was decided by a 9-0 vote of the US Supreme Court justices. Unanimous decisions on such high-profile cases rarely do come by these days.

Let's be clearer about what this decision really means. If your pager is being partly paid for by the company you work for, they have every right to request a list of all contacts that you deal with through that pager. You cannot refuse them anything that has to do with that pager at all.

If you use a computer at work, your employer will have every right to know everything you do with it. That includes every website you visit, every letter you type and every email you send.

If you have a cell phone that only you are paying for, never accept a call from the company you work for on that phone. You really need to be able to draw the line between how you and your employer will have to access each other.

And finally, do not post anything from your personal life that might not seem fine to your employer. Not on Facebook, not on Tweeter, never.