European Convention On Human Rights

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Here is an ethics question for you: Your University hosts an Internet mailing list for librarians discuss use of the Internet. Lawyers demand that a posting to the list be removed saying it gives the impression their client supports child pornography. When you check, there is a posting, but it is years old and taken in context it seems fair comment. But the lawyers argue that when the average person finds this specific posting with a web search, they aren't getting the context.

What do you do? Delete any trace of the posting, thus falsifying the public record? Replace the posting with a note saying why it was deleted? Insert a correction? Invite the aggrieved part to place a correction? Tell them to go away?

This may seem a far-fetched example, but is real, current and involves this university:

A government department is trying to change history by pressuring a university to erase an internet discussion from almost three years ago.

The comments made in an internet newsgroup in July 2000 and now archived on computers at the Australian National University, suggested the department's computers contained links to child pornography.

The South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service, which discovered the comments in October 2002, rejects the allegations as untrue and is fighting to have the comments wiped from the computer archives.

Objective

The research thesis was written to depict their main objectives: to further identify Appreciate the impact of technology on personnel privacy and evaluate privacy issues at workplace monitoring, and perceive needs for its use by organization, taking account where law wes enforce in both areas the impact of electronic monitoring on employee privacy rights, distinguish between the major forms of equality rights available to information system personnel

Identify the social and professional responsibilities that has being carried out at workplace Understand the ethical concerns associated with information and privacy, accuracy property and accessibility, and understand the role of data protection act (1998) Understand how concern of privacy and trust may effect in workplace monitoring and the skill portfolio required of employees.

Introduction

In last decades, an advanced technology continues to develop rapidly in Information Systems and workplace surveillance take many forms. It includes computer terminal monitoring, email monitoring, internet usage monitoring, voicemail monitoring social network monitoring and employee ID cards to track employee movements and keystroke logging. The increased consequences of workplace surveillance have had a number of effects on employees and employer-employee relationship. But employee monitoring has emerged as a necessity and yet as a very controversial issue due to the complexity and fast growing market. It takes many consequent effects on employee privacy, performance and health.

 

Privacy in workplace

Analyses ethical issues

Honesty is an essential component of trust. Without trust an organization cannot function effectively. The honest computing professional will not make deliberately false or deceptive claims about a system or system design, but will instead provide full disclosure of all pertinent system limitations and problems.

A computer professional has a duty to be honest about his or her own qualifications, and about any circumstances that might lead to conflicts of interest.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

Article 12 states that,

"No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interferences with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, or to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks"

(United Nations)

European convention on Human Rights

Article 8 states that,

"Ensure that everyone has the rights to respect for his private and family life, his home and correspondences"

(Refworld, 2012)

 

Since last decades, implementing new technologies at workplace have turn in to a risk considering from both prospective due to certain bad practices has being carried out at workplace.

The increased level of risk and enhanced technologies resulted in increased use of workplace monitoring and an increased the agitation between management privilege and employee privacy. Increasingly, assaults, act of stealing, violence, workplace misbehaviors and associated liabilities and damages results draw attention to implement to monitor workplace

In addition workplace monitoring justified on the grounds enable to serve aid on employee health and safety view and assist to prevent sexual, racial and other forms of harassments. And from other prospective a powerful argument can also be mounted whether it is mandatory to handle crime and dishonesty at workplace.

In the other hand, there is rising concern about the rights of employees, especially with respect to their right to privacy.

Roger Clarke (2004) points out according to lists as follows

"Fair information practices in relation to employee personal data, surveillance of activities using employer-provide facilities, fair dealing by employer, and intrusion into privacy of the person, intrusion into privacy of personal behavior"

From employers prospective they have lawful interest in competence, revenue and individual liabilities while employees have the rights if privacy

Safeguarding private data is the ultimate objective for implementing monitoring technology .beyond high investment and high profit level, utilizing these technologies occurred high pitfalls to the firm

Cummings (2002a, p.2) discussed the subject…that 80 percent of IT related crimes are committed from within an organization and the average financial loss from computer security breaches in 2002 was more than $2.5 million per company due to theft of proprietary information.

However industry research indicates that 70% of all computer security breaches are from an internal job. (TureActive, 2000)

Certain other factors was identified and reported that employers decided to monitor their employees .between these facts identified in a more recent study found that the monthly average numbers of session of at work access was higher at 41 compared to at home access ,which stood at 18 session

(Anon, 2000)

Certain countries, law was enforced in support of the employer,

The Electronic Communication and Privacy Act (1986) (ECPA) indicates that…exclusively outlawed the interception of electronic communication in transition and it has been received after. However ECPA produced in two ways

Internally company is the service provider for internal mail system usage at workplace and employer has the legal right to access employee mail.

Reading electronic traffic is not outlawed if the user provides the agreement, companies circumvent this by necessitate this consent as requirement for hiring employees And Sue Nickson point out that although the Telecommunication regulation 2000 in UK grant that an employer to be carried out responsible steps to apprise the employee when such employee is being monitored, employer retains the prerogative to observe an employee unless employee agreement, according to an intention of surveillance is carried out for certain business requirement including recording relevant information of a business transaction, guarantee submission with regulatory or self-managing guidelines, preserving the productive undertaking of employers system, sustaining standard for training and services, preventing or detecting criminal undertakings and preventing forbidden use of the workplace technologies

Another argument was raised based on privacy at work, currently most employers read and intercept confidential electronic and voice mail of their internal customers .it is understandable employees knew that their rights were violated if these action are being carried out frequently without employees permission. However, employers believe that by reading e-mail, there are many opportunities to prevent personal use or misusing company resources, employee burglary, and some other unprofessional activities.

The consequential theory apply considering contend the moral rightness of an action can be determined by looking the possible outcomes where the outcome were acceptable the action is good actions is illegal but argument can be raised as ethical. Laws are not mandatory to meet the interpretation of ethics.

(D'Amico, 1996)

In 1998 USA management association survey found that 63% of employers electronically monitored employees by accessing e-mails, accessing computer files and observing internet use and some other activities at workplace. And the research also found that 23% employees were not informed by employer that they have been monitored

(Glave, 1999)

The deontological issue regarding confidentiality of personal communication could be explained by informing all their activity at workplace will be monitored.

In popular study Bowen's bill (n.d.) aims to "quit that and strength employers to disclose the surveillance, at least as it pertain to email".

Karen Coyle (n.d.) points out that the "law doesn't have much teeth -- it treats non-compliance as a misdemeanor -- but may have more of a consciousness-raising value".

His argument was based on…

Employees to prove that they have a right to know when their communications are private and when they are not As Givens (n.d.) said , "Any and every aspect of monitoring in the workplace should be disclosed, with the exception of [surveillance] having to do with suspected criminal wrongdoing, and those exemptions have to be very clearly defined,".

Professional issue

Performances of the network is a key important process that could impact the business as system crashes capable of cost in lost productivity across the workforce, loss customer and revenue, and untold damage to reputation .Efficiency of computer network also a key factor in business productivity and performance. (Mchardy et al.2005, p.2)

Legal Issues

There are three main legislation that are relevant to monitoring in the workplace - the Human Rights Act 1998, the Data Protection Act 1998 and Electronic Communications and Privacy Act.

Legal issues arises in these situations,

Protect from unreasonable intrusion upon employee’s isolation.

Protect from appropriation of employee’s personal accounts/social networks/telephone conversation/voicemail.

Protect from unreasonable publicity given to employee’s private life.

Protect from publicity that reasonably places employee in false light before the public.

Protect company system security(theft and other harm)

Prevent and detect crime.

Establish the existence of facts.

Avoiding indiscrimination and e-harassment.

Many engineers are responsible for the safety of the products that they design, not just a designated safety engineer. Furthermore, rather than assign blame for a past event, moral responsibility focuses on what individuals should do in the future. In the moral sense, responsibility is a virtue: a "responsible person" is careful, considerate, and trustworthy; an "irresponsible person" is reckless, inconsiderate, and untrustworthy. Responsibility is shared whenever multiple individuals collaborate as a group, such as a software development team. When moral responsibility is shared, responsibility is not atomized to the point at which no one in the group is responsible. Rather, each member of the group is accountable to the other members of the group and to those whom the group’s work might affect, both for the individual’s own actions and for the effects of their collective effort. For example, suppose a computer network monitoring team has made mistakes in a complicated statistical analysis of network traffic data, and these mistakes have changed the interpretation of the reported results. If the team members do not reanalyze the data themselves, they have an obligation to seek the assistance of a statistician who can analyze the data correctly. Different team members might work with the statistician in different ways, but they should hold each other

Accountable for their individual roles in correcting the mistakes. Finally, the team has a collective moral responsibility to inform readers of the team’s initial report about the mistakes and the correction.

Telephone Monitoring

For example, employers may monitor calls with clients or customers for reasons of quality control. However, when the parties to the call are all in California, state law requires that they be informed that the conversation is recorded or monitored by either putting a beep tone on the line or playing a recorded message.

Not every business is aware of this requirement, so your calls might still be monitored without a warning. Federal law, which regulates phone calls with persons outside the state, does allow unannounced monitoring for business-related calls.

Computer Monitoring

If you have a computer terminal at your job, it may be your employer's window into your workspace. There are several types of computer monitoring.

Employers can use computer software that enables them to see what is on the screen or stored in the employees' computer terminals and hard disks. Employers can monitor Internet usage such as web-surfing and electronic mail.

People involved in intensive word-processing and data entry jobs may be subject to keystroke monitoring. Such systems tell the manager how many keystrokes per hour each employee is performing. It also may inform employees if they are above or below the standard number of keystrokes expected. Keystroke monitoring has been linked with health problems including stress disabilities and physical problems like carpal tunnel syndrome.

Another computer monitoring technique allows employers to keep track of the amount of time an employee spends away from the computer or idle time at the terminal.

Since the employer owns the computer network and the terminals, he or she is free to use them to monitor employees.Employees are given some protection from computer and other forms of electronic monitoring under certain circumstances. Union contracts, for example, may limit the employer's right to monitor. Also, public sector employees may have some minimal rights under the United States Constitution, in particular the Fourth Amendment which safeguards against unreasonable search and seizure.

Electronic Mail and Voice Mail

If an electronic mail (e-mail) system is used at a company, the employer owns it and is allowed to review its contents. Messages sent within the company as well as those that are sent from your terminal to another company or from another company to you can be subject to monitoring by your employer. This includes web-based email accounts such as Yahoo and Hotmail as well as instant messages. The same holds true for voice mail systems. In general, employees should not assume that these activities are not being monitored and are private. Several workplace privacy court cases have been decided in the employer's favor.

Many electronic mail systems have this option, but it does not guarantee your messages are kept confidential. An exception is when an employer's written electronic mail policy states that messages marked "private" are kept confidential. Even in this situation, however, there may be exceptions.

Some employers use encryption to protect the privacy of their employees' electronic mail. Encryption involves scrambling the message at the sender's terminal, then unscrambling the message at the terminal of the receiver. This ensures the message is read only by the sender and his or her intended recipient. While this system prevents co-workers and industrial "spies" from reading your electronic mail, your employer may still have access to the unscrambled messages. (Kim Komando, 2012)

Social Media Monitoring

Many companies have social media policies that limit what you can and cannot post on social networking sites about your employer. A website called Compliance Building has a database of social media policies for hundreds of companies.

There is no federal law that we are aware of that an employer is breaking by monitoring employees on social networking sites. In fact, employers can even hire third-party companies to monitor online employee activity for them. According to an article by Read Write Web employers use the service to "make sure that employees don't leak sensitive information on social networks or engage in any behavior that could damage a company's reputation."

Video Monitoring

Video monitoring is a commonplace method of deterring theft, maintaining security and monitoring employees. Employers may also use cameras to monitor employee productivity and prevent internal theft. Currently, federal law does not prevent video monitoring even when the employee does not know or consent to being monitored.

In some instances, courts have upheld employee privacy. Specifically, courts have sided with employee privacy in instances where the monitoring has been physically invasive, such as hidden cameras in a locker room or bathroom. See National Work rights Institute’s Electronic Monitoring in the Workplace: Common Law & Federal Statutory Protection for a more in-depth discussion.

Some state laws may have restrictions on where, how and why an employer may videotape employees. Labor unions may negotiate limitations on video recordings of unionized workers. Union members should speak with a union representative if they have concerns about workplace video monitoring.

Video cameras that also capture audio recordings may be subject to laws relating to audio recording, including wiretap and eavesdropping laws.

Workplace Privacy Protections

Generally, employers may use GPS devices to track employees in employer-owned vehicles. Some courts have extended this to employee-owned vehicles as well. The law on this is rapidly evolving. Learn more by reading GPS in the Workplace.

Currently there are very few laws regulating employee monitoring. If you are concerned about this issue, contact your federal legislators, especially the members of the House and Senate Labor committees in Congress.

There are several groups that are actively involved in workplace monitoring issues and that advocate stronger government regulation of employee

Respect the privacy of others.

Computing and communication technology enables the collection and exchange of personal information on a scale unprecedented in the history of civilization. Thus there is increased potential for violating the privacy of individuals and groups. It is the responsibility of professionals to maintain the privacy and integrity ofdata describing individuals. This includes taking precautions to ensure the accuracy of data, as well as protecting it from unauthorized access or accidental disclosure to inappropriate individuals. Furthermore, procedures must be established to allow individuals to review their records and correct inaccuracies.

This imperative implies that only the necessary amount of personal information be collected in a system, that retention and disposal periods for that information be clearly defined and enforced, and that personal information gathered for a specific purpose not be used for other purposes without consent of the individual(s). These principles apply to electronic communications, including electronic mail, and prohibit procedures that capture or monitor electronic user data, including messages, without the permission of users or bona fide authorization related to system operation and maintenance. User data observed during the normal duties of system operation and maintenance must be treated with strictest confidentiality, except in cases where it is evidence for the violation of law, organizational regulations, or this Code. In these cases, the nature or contents of that information must be disclosed only to proper authorities.

 

Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness and dignity in both the process and products of professional work.

Excellence is perhaps the most important obligation of a professional. The computing professional must strive to achieve quality and to be cognizant of the serious negative consequences that may result from poor quality in a system.

Acquire and maintain professional competence.

Excellence depends on individuals who take responsibility for acquiring and maintaining professional competence. A professional must participate in setting standards for appropriate levels of competence, and strive to achieve those standards. Upgrading technical knowledge and competence can be achieved in several ways: doing independent study; attending seminars, conferences, or courses; and being involved in professional organizations.

Know and respect existing laws pertaining to professional work.

ACM members must obey existing local, state, province, national, and international laws unless there is a compelling ethical basis not to do so. Policies and procedures of the organizations in which one participates must also be obeyed. But compliance must be balanced with the recognition that sometimes existing laws and rules may be immoral or inappropriate and, therefore, must be challenged. Violation of a law or regulation may be ethical when that law or rule has inadequate moral basis or when it conflicts with another law judged to be more important. If one decides to violate a law or rule because it is viewed as unethical, or for any other reason, one must fully accept responsibility for one's actions and for the consequences.

Accept and provide appropriate professional review.

Quality professional work, especially in the computing profession, depends on professional reviewing and critiquing. Whenever appropriate, individual members should seek and utilize peer review as well as provide critical review of the work of others.

Give comprehensive and thorough evaluations of computer systems and their impacts, including analysis of possible risks.

Computer professionals must strive to be perceptive, thorough, and objective when evaluating, recommending, and presenting system descriptions and alternatives. Computer professionals are in a position of special trust, and therefore have a special responsibility to provide objective, credible evaluations to employers, clients, users, and the public.

Most of these companies pay their workers relatively, substandard salaries and wages. What the companies do is to make sure that they pay the minimum wage requirement of the country the business is established. Legally, they are free because they pay what the law of the land requires. Contrarily, the western public sees such companies as unethical, reason being that they (western public) believe that employees that are equally hard working in the developing world also deserve some measure of good life as obtainable in the developed world. However, sensitive companies are beginning to adjust and address the issue in a professional way that would help maintain or possibly improve their public image. 

According to this theory, computer and internet usage makes it easier to collect, communicate, keep, change and find information of the company and employees quickly. Internet and computer usage increase the efficiency and effectiveness in the workplace. However it has a negative effect on the employee’s right to privacy because information of an individual that can be easily identified. Users of the internet are more problems to violations of privacy, in the case of the workplace, online messaging can be viewed by third parties thus enabling another person to read private conversations without consent.