Workplace Privacy

Workplace privacy is part of a much broader conversation about control over data, images, and information that sweeps in everything from the sale of consumer data to the scope of government monitoring.

Some scholars, however, are skeptical about the idea that employees have privacy at work. After all, employees expect a degree of monitoring in public spaces, such as workplaces, and employers have vital interests both in risk management and profit-making. But the rise of smartphones, social media, and other forms of electronic communications complicates this story, as does increasing employer efforts to regulate at-home conduct. Indeed, recent studies have found that most major employers in the United States monitor employee communications and activities in some way. 

Employer-employee private disputes can involve monitoring of phone, social media, or email accounts, drug and other testing, and questions or revelations about deeply personal matters. We will consider how to strike the balance between the needs of workers and hirers--and where the public's interests might come into play--by looking at the rules governing both public and private-sector employees.