LITTLE BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU The legal and ethical issue of employer’s looking over the shoulder of their employees. Jeff Linton

THE ISSUE  Little Brother  Database of 45,000 web sites  Employers monitor their employee’s internet usage.  Productive, nonproductive or neutral  Provides employee ratings  Block objectionable web sites  Remotely enter employee hard drives  Read employee  Find deleted s

THE LAW  1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act,  “illegal for unauthorized individuals to look at someone else’s ,” but the Act exempts service providers from these provisions.  Santa Clara University Professor of Law Dorothy Glancy  "Often, court opinions take the point of view that when the employees are using employers' property—the employers' computers and networks—the employees' expectation of privacy is minimal.”

THE LAW  Example:  man fired for inappropriate s to his supervisor about management.  claimed his rights were violated because the company promised him his s were private.  courts ruled in the company’s favor  “ The company's interest in preventing inappropriate and unprofessional conduct outweighed the man’s privacy rights.”

CASE FOR WORKPLACE MONITORING  employers can use the software to find and delete games that employees have downloaded or installed so…..  No issue with employers expecting computers they provide for work to be used for work so…  Big deal employers look through employee internet browsing history to see if they are spending their time on work- related activities?  Nielsen Media Research:  employees at major corporations such as IBM, Apple, and AT&T logged onto the online edition of Penthouse thousands of times a month.”

CASE FOR WORKPLACE MONITORING  Employees using to steal key information from them:  The article cited a man who was caught ing his personal account $5 million bytes of company source code on company products. It was found out he was doing this to bring it to a rival company of which he was leaving to go work for!  Being sued for inappropriate work atmospheres due to inappropriate s.  Sexual / Racial Jokes  Pornography in s

CASE AGAINST WORKPLACE MONITORING  Employee writes a note to her boyfriend, puts it in an envelope, affixes her own stamp, and drops it in the outgoing mail  Fact that the pencil and paper she used belong to her employer give her boss the right to open and read the letter?  Is this so different than the employer looking into just because they own the computer?

CASE AGAINST WORKPLACE MONITORING  As long as their internet usage does not interfere with the job  The time management spends monitoring employee usage is just as much a waste of time  While employee computers are being monitored, who is monitoring management’s computers?

CAN THERE BE COMMON GROUND?  Employers:  honest up front about how much “computer privacy” employees will actually have.  Employees:  If told up front and not OK with it, go somewhere else  Survey of employees:  Most employees heard about their policy by word of mouth or were involved in the writing of the policy.

MY OPINION  No problem  Keep the big picture in mind.  If employee is looking at pornography, then yes, I deserve to have consequences.  If it is shown that employee has spent time on ESPN.com, and work is getting done, then who cares!

MY OPINION  Companies need to take a look at worker productivity in terms of the work that is assigned to employees.  If they see someone is getting their job done but has spent hours on non- work related sites, then give them more work to do, not fire them!  Management should not be allowed to look at employees’ unless it is needed in some sort of legal issue.

ARTICLE  Miriam Schulman, Santa Clara University 