Ethical Issues Surrounding the Asymmetric Nature of Workplace Monitoring

  • John D. Bustard
Conference paper
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 8030)

Abstract

Public discussion of the privacy concerns of individuals has focused on protecting them from criminal attacks, government spying and the manipulation of consumers by businesses. While these are important areas of concern, there is also a significant ethical and societal risk from privacy intrusion from other sources, such as employers. Many employers gather extensive and highly personal information on their staff. The availability of this information is often asymmetric, with higher status employees having correspondingly greater access to the personal data of others. This paper examines some of the risks inherent in this asymmetry and discusses to what extent existing legal and social measures are sufficient to protect individuals, organisations and society.

Keywords

Ethics privacy workplace monitoring 
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • John D. Bustard
    • 1
  1. 1.University of SouthamptonHampshireUK

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