Where’s the Line Between Security and Privacy Issues?

Using spy cameras for secret surveillance is not a surprise anymore. There are many examples, like banks, super markets or parking lots. However, one example of secret surveillance is widely debatable. And that is – employee surveillance.

Sure, the company has to protect its equipment or intellectual property. However, employee, as every civilian of a modern society has to have rights to his or her own privacy.

Let’s look at the popular examples of employee surveillance in restaurants or casinos and decide if monitoring employees is really such a bad and offensive practice.

Restaurant Business

Restaurants are a savior for those of use who do not have time to have lunch or dinner at home. When we go to a restaurant, we expect everything to be smooth from clean plates to nice service. And of course, we expect to have a tasty meal every time. But can we always be sure that we get exactly what we want?

You probably seen those videos on various television shows where employee surveillance disclose incompetent (and many times psychological problems having) employees who do some really nasty stuff.

For instance, they may sneeze into the plate, spit into your coffee, and do much much worse things that you probably wouldn’t want to think about right now.

There may be many reasons for that (excluding quite obvious – mental illness). Some may have a bad day, some may not like a person, some maybe didn’t get enough tips last time, and so on… But these situations should never be tolerated.

So how can we be sure that we eat a clean and tasty food? Well, secret employee surveillance helps us this time. Maybe no one would ever knew that such things happen, if no spy cameras were installed to monitor employees during their work day. In this case, employee surveillance at least, gives us some hope that such employees will think twice before doing something nasty.

Casino Business

Casino business is probably the largest industry for employee surveillance. Almost every casino in Las Vegas has some kind of security camera or hires specialized companies to spy on their employees and clients.

Without secret (well, many already know about security cameras in casinos) surveillance, a casino would lose millions of dollars in the long run. So employing a company to monitor gamblers or employees is much more financially beneficial, because casinos can save a lot of money.

Again, without closely monitoring their employees and clients, it would be impossible to discover and have a proof that someone is stealing the money or cheating over the table.

Intellectual Property

Another example of employee surveillance is various IT companies who track if employees don’t abuse their email systems or leak valuable information outside the company itself.

You probably know how much employees love to abuse a company’s network. They download movies, MP3’s, share files and browse porno websites very often, in some cases every single day.

Well companies who want their employees to work efficiently and stop abusing their systems, install special software for tracking their employee activities at work. That software can alert system managers about various inappropriate actions and help company to control their employees’ work better.

It is especially important when companies don’t want the information to be sent outside their network. Employees might send a new movie script over the net and ruin film studio’s plans. They might send some important application via email to the other company expecting to get a payment for such traitorous activity.

So once again, employee surveillance is a must in such situation.

Companies usually have their own rules for surveillance and inform their employees about such things in the contract or otherwise.

Conclusion

While, employee surveillance is very important in some cases, there are many people who disagree and claim that monitoring employees infringes employee’s rights. They say that employee has to have privacy at home and at work, feel safe and secure all the time.

Some say that even if you monitor employees’ emails or their working space, there are still mail, phone calls, fax machines and other ways to leak very important information outside the company. If employee wants to violate their company’s policy, no one will stop them.

Well, that might be true. However, employing various surveillance tools to monitor employees will definitely decrease the chance of money fraud or other illegal activity. If you warn your employees about spy cameras, they’ll definitely think twice before doing something illegal.