Business

Since the emergence of internet and its increasing use in workplaces, the issue employee privacy has been debated frequently.  This is because employers have devised policies regarding internet and email and around 92 employers resort to monitoring of employees online activities (The National Workrights Institute n.d.). Employees attach great importance to their online privacy and this has called for laws to be enacted as for as employee privacy is concerned. This report will address some of the important aspects of online privacy of employees.

Email and Internet Use Policy at Job
Our company has strict internet usage and email policy. The internet policy requires all the employees to use internet solely for the purpose of conducting company business during office hours. The internet can, however, be used to surf other things on the internet during break. During break, no employee is allowed to access pornographic or other immoral and unethical material on the internet. Employees will do their best to avoid malicious programs or websites as they can cause a serious damage to company as hackers can intrude into companys privacy by gaining an access to companys passwords and other sensitive data. The company calls for strictly following these rules. In case any employee violates any of these rules, the company will take strict disciplinary action against the culprit which might lead to hisher termination from the job.

Our company also has rules regulating the email usage of employees. Email can be used for company business only. No employee is allowed to share the confidential information through email without the authorization of hisher supervisor. The company has the right to monitor employee emails sent or received through the company-provided email.

Current Laws Regulating Email and Internet Privacy
Since the advent of technology, judiciary has formulated laws regarding email and internet privacy at work. At workplace, if anyone has access to a computer, heshe is said to have a terminal. Employees generally have permission to see what is on any employees terminal as the whole network is owned by the company (Caragozian  Warner, 2000).

Electronic mail or email is not private for employees as the law allows employers to monitor the contents of the emails sent through ones terminal. The reason for the permission is that the company owns all the terminals and therefore, has the right to see what is going on the companys terminals. Messages that can be monitored are the ones sent within the company and those sent from company terminals to other companies. This implies that web-based email services like Hotmail and Gmail can also be monitored (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse  UCAN, 2009).

Reasons Companies have Internet and Email Policies  
There can be many reasons that employers have internet usage and email policies. The first and foremost reason is to ensure that employees be productive at work. For example, if employees are given freehand and allowed to do whatever they please on internet, they might pay little attention to the work at hand. This is evident by the fact that workers in America waste 20 of their time on surfing internet and chatting on social networking utilities (Bpovia, 2009). Therefore, employers consider it very important to have stringent policies regarding internet and monitoring employees activities online.

Employees Perception of Internet Usage and Email Privacy
After talking to my colleagues, I have come to believe that employees have many issues with the internet usage and email policies. Many employees consider these measures to be violating their privacy rights. Some also said that they are partners in companys progress so their privacy should be respected. And, they should be empowered and allowed to take charge of their work life as they will become more responsible employees. Monitoring their online surfing and email messages will only serve to de-motivate employees resulting in unproductive work environment. It is, therefore, imperative to allow them to take charge of their work life as employees are mature beings.

Effect of Internet usage and Email Policies on Privacy at Work  
Privacy is one of those things that everybody cares about. This is important and it is evident from the fact that one of the reasons for the success of Facebook is that people have control over their online privacy. But the same is not true for workplace where company policies as for as internet and email is concerned have threatened the privacy of employees. They cannot safely work online as they fear their online activities are also monitored. In Some cases even an employer monitors the Facebook or MySpace profiles of its employees. These measures have created a sense of insecurity among the employees that might be affecting the productivity of employees.

Conclusion
All in all, it can be said that of late employers have come to devise stringent policies regarding online activities of employees with the intent of making employees more productive. Employees, on the other hand, consider these policies to be violating their privacy rights. These kinds of issues have resulting in judiciary enacting laws to protect the privacy of employees. In the light of above discussion, itt can be said that employers need to reconsider their policies and change them to make employees feel secure about their online privacy.