(Newswire.net — September 3, 2019) — While most employers focus on using technology to improve the productivity of the employees, enhancing the quality of their products, and ensuring that the workplace is safe, there is one thing that they forget: the importance of employee privacy. If you attend a couple of Trevor Hughes conferences, you will get to learn about employment laws that cover employee privacy. There are several ways through which employers violate employees’ privacy by using technology. How do you know if your privacy rights are being violated? Here is how.
1. Violation of confidentiality
There are times that the employer sends you an online questionnaire to fill in details about your medical history among other private information. As Trevor Hughes would advise, such information should be held with maximum discretion. If you find that your employer has shared that information with a prospective employer after you listed him as a referee, then it is a privacy violation. In this case, you are allowed to sue the company as the information was only meant for their use.
2. Secret monitoring
Employers are permitted to monitor emails sent through the company’s computer systems, phone calls related to the organization and the use of its property. However, when such is happening, they are expected to inform the employees on such activities.
3. The intrusion of private life
Invasion of your private life by an employer may come in many forms. Today, most people use digital technology to invade one’s private life. This is due to the convenience that technology brings. Thanks to the Internet of Things, you can be able to get a string of information using only one entry point. In other cases, more crude methods like following an employee after work to know where he or she stays or interacts with are used.
It is against employment laws. If your employer is intruding your private life through any of the mentioned ways, you have the right to sue him.
4. The intrusion of private space
As much as employee surveillance is allowed, there are some extents that an employer is not expected to go. Searching personal areas such as drawers, handbags, and so on is unreasonable. There are ways that employers use technology to invade employees’ private space. Unfortunately, most are the times that employees have no clue that their privacy is being violated. For instance, there is no reason for employers to install surveillance cameras in dressing rooms.
Digging information on sensitive topics is also uncalled for. Trevor Hughes would qualify that type of intrusion for a claim.
There are several other actions by an employer that may call for privacy law claims. One of them is if your employer uses your name without your consent. For instance, publishing your picture in a corporate magazine without you agreeing to it. Studying employment rights is useful for protecting you from privacy violation. It is essential to understand the limitations set for employers when it comes to your privacy. If you feel there is a violation, you should file a claim.