Electronic Employee Monitoring: Pros, Cons, and Privacy Rights

Introduction

Modern technology has allowed employers many new capacities, including the ability to electronically oversee employees' every action while on the job. In recent years, many employees have argued that surveillance in the workplace is a violation of their right to privacy. Employers argue, however, that employees should not have a right to privacy at work, especially since the employer pays them to perform a duty. Despite this, almost 100 percent of employees likely report engaging in some personal business while at work at one time or another.

Unfortunately, there are few laws that side with the employee at this time. Most laws argue in favor of the employer, as long as the employer informs the employee of their surveillance plans in advance. Below, we discuss what types of surveillance corporations are now using to protect themselves, and examine the advantages and disadvantages such methods have for employees.

Background and Statistics on Workplace Surveillance

More and more employers are watching employees in the workplace, especially using computer information systems to track employee communications. Though many employees claim electronic surveillance violates their right to privacy, many organizations support the practice by claiming they have a right to ensure employees are engaging in productive activities while on the job. Electronic surveillance takes many different forms, and may include the collection, analysis, and reporting of information from computer terminals, telephone conversations, and even employee voice mail messages (Crampton & Mishra, 4).

More than 26 million workers are monitored each year in the United States, with more employers adopting surveillance measures every year (DeTienne, 33). Many of the workers recorded are evaluated at a performance level through electronic surveillance. Some studies suggest that as many as 30 million people in the next decade will be consistently monitored to track their day-to-day activities on the job (DeTienne, 33).

There are many different employee monitoring devices available to employers today. The most common is computer monitoring systems (Losey, 77). These systems often evaluate the accuracy and keystrokes an employee inputs into the system (Crampton & Mishra, 4). Other monitoring includes surveillance of employee activities through video cameras, which can check employee behavior at and away from computer terminals. Of particular interest to employers are activities such as theft, horseplay, safety violations, and corporate espionage (Crampton & Mishra, 4).

Computer monitoring systems are by far the most common tools used by employers to track employee work roles. Computer monitoring can even detect the amount of time an employee spends away from their terminal or whether they are idle while at their computers. Keystroke monitoring, however, is much less invasive than email and communications monitoring. More and more employers are viewing private email messages and other communications that employees send while on the job. Employers often justify this practice by claiming they have a right to ensure that employees are working rather than using company time and equipment to conduct private business.

Many employers record email and voice mail as common practice (Crampton & Mishra, 3). Most employers are able to use new technologies to check email even after an employee has deleted it, as most messages are permanently backed up by organizations using computer information systems. Unfortunately, there are few federal laws that specifically restrict an employer from reading emails or computer files that an employee creates (Crampton & Mishra, 4). Studies suggest that as many as one in five companies search employee emails and other computer files.

Other means employers use to monitor employees include eavesdropping on conversations through phone tapping, which allows employers to track incoming, outgoing, and the frequency of phone calls (Crampton & Mishra, 4). Even employee security badges provide employers a means to track employees by monitoring their location and the number of times they enter a building. At this time there are no comprehensive federal laws that fully protect employee privacy on the job (Alderman, 31). Rather, because of advancements in technology, organizations are increasingly able to record employees using information technology without consequence.

The most well-known law related to employee monitoring in the workplace is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Employees are granted some protections under the law, but thanks to provisions in the ECPA, most employees remain subject to surveillance. This act does not limit the policies organizations use for allowing employees to use company property for private email.

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act

There are in fact many interpretations of this law. In general, the law protects individuals from unauthorized access to their email; however, it does allow access to private email under circumstances defined by the organization to heighten employer security. The employer may also require that employees grant the employer access to private email as a condition of employment.

If employees engage in any illegal activity, the employer may be legally obligated to turn over any communications or information to law enforcement officials (Worsnop, 1025).

In May of 2005, the American Management Association (AMA) published a survey examining employer use of monitoring in the United States. This study suggests that 26 percent of employers have fired workers for using the Internet inappropriately, while 25 percent have fired employees for email misuse, including sending personal emails on company time (AMA, 1). The study also shows that 6 percent of employers have fired employees for using office telephones for personal or long-distance calls.

Recent Survey Data on Electronic Monitoring

The report shows that up to 76 percent of employers are now monitoring employees' website or Internet use to gauge what sites employees visit while at work. Other companies have taken a proactive approach by blocking employees from accessing Internet sites deemed inappropriate.

Nearly half of the employers surveyed by the AMA reported storing and reviewing computer files for all employees, while more than 55 percent reported keeping and reviewing email messages. The good news is that most of these organizations inform employees of their actions. Nearly 80 percent of the organizations surveyed told employees that they would record computer use and files, and almost 90 percent let employees know they recorded email communications in the workplace.

This suggests that employers are monitoring employees more often than before, but are also being more careful about it — informing employees of their intentions in order to prevent legal challenges. With this in mind, many employers develop policies that dictate how employees may use email, the Internet, and voice mail at work. More than 84 percent of companies have policies describing acceptable personal email use.

This is in part a response to the 13 percent of employers that employees have taken to court for privacy violations. Most of the cases brought to court sided in favor of the employer rather than the employee. Nonetheless, the costs associated with such cases are not appealing for most organizations.

Many employers currently block access to telephone numbers deemed inappropriate. The AMA study shows that more than 50 percent of employers block employee access to such numbers, while 51 percent track the telephone numbers employees dial regularly. Many employees assume that video surveillance is less common than it actually is. Nearly 51 percent of employers in 2005 were video monitoring employees, compared with only 33 percent in 2001 (AMA, 1). Not only that, employers are using these recordings to track employee performance. Of the companies that use video surveillance, a majority do inform employees of their intent.