Case study:

Conflicts over Privacy in the Workplace

1. Companies should have the right to track employees through company smartphones
and monitor their personal Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Monitored workstations, cameras, microphones, and other electronic monitoring devices

permit employers to oversee virtually every aspect of employees’ at-work behavior.
Technology also allows employers to monitor every aspect of computer use by employees,
such as downloads of software and documents, Internet use, images displayed, time a
computer has been idle, number of keystrokes per hour, words typed, and the content of e-
mails at work-place. So employers should not to track employees' personal accounts such as
Facebook and Twitter as monitoring can be done by employer at work-place.

2. Employees should be able to maintain their personal privacy and not be tracked
through their company smartphones or their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

It is the company's responsibility to make employees feel comfortable with them so that
they perform their tasks in more effective manner. The company displays a lack of trust of
an individual if there is a 24/7 monitoring of their private life outside of work. The private
lives of employees’ are their right so employer should not be tracked through their
company smartphones or their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Conclusion
 Employers should develop a clear, specific, and reasonable monitoring policy. The policy should limit
monitoring to that which is directly work related. Employers must decide not only what they are legally
allowed to do but also what they should do ethically, keeping in mind the individual privacy concerns of
their employees.