Compiled By Michael A. Verespej Workplace surveillance is the top privacy issue in U.S. society today, says the 7-month-old Privacy Foundation, a nonprofit research organization based at the University of Denver. The foundation recently ranked ...
Compiled ByMichael A. Verespej Workplace surveillance is the top privacy issue in U.S. society today, says the 7-month-old Privacy Foundation, a nonprofit research organization based at the University of Denver. The foundation recently ranked electronic monitoring No. 1 in its top-10 list of privacy matters that troubled Americans in the past year. "The rise of the Internet has sent a flood tide of privacy concerns through business and society," says Executive Director Stephen Keating, pointing to an American Management Assn. research study which indicates that two-thirds of U.S. companies do in-house electronic surveillance and 27% monitor employees' e-mails. But Keating says some of that may backfire. "Employers may be rightly concerned about security and productivity issues or legal liability arising from e-mailed sexual banter," says Keating. "But [it] will undoubtedly affect morale [and] employee recruitment and retention." That's why he predicts that manufacturers -- particularly those in need of highly skilled, high-tech workers -- will begin to tout "spy-free" workplaces as a fringe benefit.
