Workplace Privacy

This article really hits home. Well, and the workplace I guess.

Before I became freelance, I worked in an office that did not provide me with a computer. Two reasons, 1) I had software on my personal laptop that made it much easier to do my job that the company did not want to have to pay for, and 2) they hadn’t supplied me with a computer immediately, so after I started using my own they just went with the flow.

This was fabulous for me, but created a number of issues for me when the time came to leave the company. What was their property and what was mine? What did I have to share or give to them and not keep for myself? Were they allowed to access my computer, or just trust me that I gave them what they needed?

“The boundaries between work and home have been … muddled by incentives for employers to monitor employee health, a growing culture of Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) workplaces, and affordable innovations in monitoring and tracking technology. This creates a need for us to define what it means to have privacy in the relationship between employers and their employees, and to create a culture of workplace privacy, which state legislators are now attempting to do. (https://cdt.org/insight/workplace-privacy-state-legislation-future-technology-questions/)”

Even now as a freelancer, I STILL need to define a clear line of what is my property and what belongs to the client.

Depending on the size of your organization, you might already have something in place? But most small businesses haven’t even thought about the complications and legal issues with having employees use any type of personal device (cell phone, tablets, or computers) in the workplace. Where are your employees storing YOUR property? Is it safe? Are their devices spreading unknown viruses to your network? Do your employees have access to confidential files that might be copied onto their personal devices?

The technicians at West Valley Technical Services probably can’t help you define your legal boundaries or help define ‘personal vs professional.’ But we can help make sure that personal and professional devices are safely integrated into the workplace. If you haven’t spoken to your WVTS technician recently, contact us today so we can evaluate your current needs.