Legal and Technological Aspects of the Idea of Workplace Privacy - Thesis Example

In this scenario, the extent to which an employee can monitor and where he needs to draw a line is a major concern for both employers and employees. Employers find it crucial to monitor their workplaces due to fraud and theft, productivity, and security concerns that stem from the internal workforce either directly or indirectly. They utilize monitoring methods and applications that range from telephone monitoring to genetic testing. On the other hand, employees regard it as intrusive monitoring that invades their right to privacy without reasonable justification. Though the right to privacy is not explicitly given in U.S. Constitution, there are certain amendments (1st, 4th, and 9th) and Acts that ensure employees' privacy rights. However, these conflicting interests give rise to legal issues and lawsuits from employees in the United States.

There are a number of ways to define privacy. The earlier definition of privacy concentrated on a person’s right to his individual privacy which refers to his right to be alone and at a distance from other people(Chapin 164; Bates 839). However, research on this perception soon expanded and a person’s environment is also included as an element in the discussion of privacy(Bellinger and Virginia 2). Spreading it further Schwartz stated: “There exists a threshold beyond which social contact becomes irritating for all parties: therefore, some provision for removing oneself from interaction and observation must be built into every establishment”(741).

Bellinger and Virginia observe that the above statement is true for the majority of people in today’s working environment (2).In 1976; Altman classified the prior definitions into three categories. First-class definitions stressed seclusion, withdrawal, and staying away from other people. Rather than exclusion, the second category lays greater emphasis on privacy in terms of control, freedom to choose, and opening and closing of self for others. While the third group of definitions refers that privacy as the selective control of access to the individual self or the group they belong to (qt. in Bellinger and Virginia 2).