Chapter 12: Workplace Privacy
Legal Obligations and Incentives to Monitor
Employers monitor to meet safety laws (OSHA), improve quality (recorded service calls), limit negligent-supervision liability, protect physical security (CCTV, GPS), protect cybersecurity, and guard trade secrets. Strong policies both favor and limit monitoring; employers often choose not to monitor for ethics, cost, and morale.
- Follow safety laws - OSHA requires a safe workplace; biometric sensors (e.g., eye monitors for truck drivers) can help
- Improve quality - recording service calls for training, QA, and dispute resolution (must follow call-recording rules; pause recording when customers relay full payment-card data)
- Limit liability - defend against and hostile-work-environment claims (some experts disagree about monitoring email for this purpose)
- Protect physical security - CCTV at perimeters and inside; GPS on company vehicles; biometrics for restricted areas
- Protect cybersecurity - antispam/antivirus, intrusion detection, acceptable-use limits, biometric login
- Protect trade secrets - analyzing emails, computer usage, and even location to detect competitor meetings
Costs of monitoring
Employers often choose not to monitor for reasons of ethics, cost, and morale; monitoring also creates legal obligations to act on misconduct it reveals.
Key terms - quick answers
What is “Negligent supervision”?
A tort claim that an employer failed to adequately supervise an employee, especially where on notice of a specific risk; an incentive for workplace monitoring.