PRIVACY
What ways privacy legally protected United States Essay Question: Explain general ways privacy legally protected United States Essay 250 words length APA format. 2 references Book Reference Bennett-Alexander, D.
Explain the three general ways in which privacy is legally protected in the United States
The right to privacy is not specifically enumerated in the U.S. Constitution but the U.S. Supreme Court over the years has ruled that it is a protected right within the "penumbras" of various Bills of Rights such as the right to free speech and the right to be protected from unreasonable searches (Linder 2013). The right to privacy can also be more generally found in the Ninth Amendment's reference to "other rights retained by the people" and the Fourteenth Amendment which generally prohibits the government from engaging in practices inconsistent with the freedoms guaranteed in the other sections of the Bill of Rights (Linder 2013). The constitutional protection against unreasonable searches has also been found to include drug tests in the workplace of government workers unless the drug tests are needed for safety purposes or another compelling reason (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman 2009: 665).
However, most citizens' protections from government intrusions do not extend to private...
For example, private employers can read employee email, track employee's movements throughout the workplace, read text message, and listen in on phone conversations although technically according to federal law the employer must desist from listening to the conversation if it is obvious it is not of a business-related nature (What privacy rights do I have in the workplace, 2013, LA Times). Employers can, however, penalize employees for excessive personal use of phones during work hours -- it is the employer who 'owns' the technology, not the employee (What privacy rights do I have in the workplace, 2013, LA Times).
Even off-hours employee conduct can be restricted by private employers in some instances (for example, the weight of employees, which restricts employee eating and exercise habits) if it can be shown to have a material impact on job performance. While restricting employee weight might seem to be valid in the case of certain jobs, there is concern that workplace intrusions into private life are growing for all occupations (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman 2009: 678). Smokers might be legitimately charged more for healthcare policies, but what about refusing to employ smokers altogether or mandating worker…
