Employee Privacy

Date	Article Title	Publication	Author	Synopsis

7/17/2008	What's behind the rash of employee cybersnooping?	ComputerWorld	Jay Cline	Citing several high-profile cases of employees snooping into the files of well-known individuals, Jay Cline explores the topic of employee cybersnooping in his latest report for Computerworld. Should organizations be concerned about the kind of celebrity file tampering that occurred at UCLA Medical Center, the U.S. Department of State and the Internal Revenue Service earlier this year--which exposed medical, passport and tax data of celebrities?
6/30/2008	NI Numbers of 140,000 visable on tax envelopes	Mail Online	Michael Lea	Daily Mail reports that tax forms sent to 140,000 Britons included their National Insurance numbers, visible on the mailing envelope alongside their names and mailing addresses. The sender, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), blamed a wrongly calibrated machine for the error and has agreed to flag the tax records of those affected in order to fend off the increased threat of identity fraud.
6/30/2008	Privacy campaigners may sue EC over provision of citizens' personal data to the FBI	SC Magazine	Richard Thurston	The European Commission may face legal action if, as expected, it finalizes an agreement for the release of EU citizens' data to the United States government, says an SC Magazine report. The pact, once implemented, would allow law enforcement and security agencies to collect EU citizens' credit card transactions, travel histories, Internet browsing habits and other personal information in an effort to counter terrorism activities.
6/27/2008	A Company Computer and Questions About Email Privacy	New York Times	Jonathan Glater	The case of a fired financier has the potential to set a precedent in what has been an ambiguous area of the law so far, says a New York Times report. Connecticut's federal court will hear the case of Scott Sidell, the plaintiff who alleges his former bosses read his personal Yahoo e-mail messages after he had left the company, raising questions about employees' personal privacy when using company equipment.
6/25/2008	United States: Connecticut Becomes Only The Second State To Mandate An Employee Data Protection Policy	Mondaq	Philip Gordon	Earlier this month, the Daily Dashboard ran the news of Connecticut's passage of a law to protect the personal information of those who work in the state. Connecticut is only the second state to mandate employee data protection policies, and An Act Concerning the Confidentiality of Social Security Numbers goes into effect October 1.
6/20/2008	Sweden adopts eavesdropping legislation	SC Magazine	Richard Thurston	A bill set to take effect in January gives a Swedish intelligence agency the right to scan international communications without a court order
6/20/2008	Digital rights activists take Irish Government to court	Silicon Republic.com	John Kennedy	Digital Rights Ireland (DRI) is challenging the nation's data retention law in the High Court. DRI says the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act of 2005, which mandates the retention of all electronic communications data--including telephone calls, emails, instant messaging and posts on social networking sites--for 10 years, leaves citizens vulnerable to wrongdoing.
6/19/2008	FSA fines stockbroking firm 77,000 for weak data security	Computer Weekly		Britain's Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined Merchant Securities £77,000 for failing to secure customers' data.
6/17/2008	Workers should expect little computer privacy, experts say	greenvilleonline.com	Ron Barnett & Ben Szobody	The attention surrounding an investigation in Greenville County South Carolina has likely reminded county employees that they should have "no expectation of privacy" when it comes to their use of county computers.
6/10/2008	Q & A with IAPP Practical Privacy Series Speakers	IAPP	Philip Gordon	Earlier this week we heard about Stanford University's loss of up to 72,000 personnel records. Last month it was AT&T. Employers are using ever-widening "screening" methods in their hiring processes, and recent survey results revealed that many large enterprises are monitoring employees' communications regularly.
5/2/2008	Court says feds don't have to reveal names	San Francisco Chronicle	Bob Egelko	The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has ruled that the names of employees involved in a botched investigation into a fatal firefighting operation in the Salmon-Challis National Forest do not have to be revealed.
4/23/2008	A show of support	Workforce Management	Kristin Gunderson Hunt	A growing trend within many companies is the formation of both ad hoc and employer-sanctioned on-site support groups to help employees cope with medical or lifestyle issues.
4/10/2008	Planning a company social network? Don't forget privacy issues	Computer World	Jay Cline	While some companies are blocking employee access to social networking sites for fears of lost productivity and privacy issues, others are considering implementation of an internal social network designed to keep employees' attention on the job.
2/3/2008	Opinion: State Employee Records Should Be Public	East Valley Tribune	Le Templar	Columnist Le Templar argues that the employee records for state employees should be available for public scrutiny. Open government, he argues, is dependent upon transparency, and the fact that state employee records are protected establishes a veil of secrecy that fosters mistrust.
12/19/2007	Case Provides Guidance On Email Privacy In The Workplace	Law.com Legal Technology	Kelly D. Talcott	Kelly D. Talcott, a Partner in the New York Office of K&L Gates, takes a look at the facts of a bankruptcy case that resulted in a 4-part test to determine whether the attorney-client privilege applies when an employee sends personal emails to an attorney over a company's communications system.

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