Introduction


The coming into being of new communication and computer technologies has generated a host of ethical problems, and some of the more pressing concern the moral notion of privacy. Some of these problems arise from new possibilities of data collections and software for computer monitoring. For example, computers can now combine and integrate databases provided by polling and other means to enable highly personalised and detailed voter profiles. Another cluster of problems revolves around the threat to privacy posed by the new possibilities of monitoring and surveillance. For example, telephone tapping, interception of electronic mail messages, minute cameras , and virtually undetectable listening and recording devices give unprecedented access to private conversations and other private communications and interactions. Possibly the greatest threat to privacy is posed by the possibility of combining these new technologies, and specifically combining the use of monitoring and surveillance devices, with certain computer software and computer networks, including the Internet. My concern in this chapter is with the use of communication and computer technology to surveil and monitor the performance and activity of employees in the workplace (Garson, 1988; Rule, 1996), specifically the performance and activity of police officers. Note that while police officers work in organisational settings, much of their work is out in the community.

In the first section of this chapter I provide an account of the notions of privacy and confidentiality; in the second section, I give a general account of the problems posed for individual privacy and for confidentiality by workplace surveillance and monitoring; and in the third and final section, I address some specific problems that arise in policing.




Electronic Monitoring in the Workplace. Controversies and Solutions
Electronic Monitoring in the Workplace: Controversies and Solutions
ISBN: 1591404568
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 161

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