Managers And Employees In Todays Work Force Need To Obey And Underst E

Managers and employee's in today's work force need to obey and understand the privacy and security laws that protect one another's privacy. The importance of an employee's privacy is not a topic to be taken lightly, and if not addressed and enforced in a serious manner, could create unwanted problems in corporations and businesses. People are mistaken when they think a person has to work for them to be protected under federal privacy and security laws. Privacy laws start as soon as a person applies for a position in a company or business. Industries of today lack policies that protect them and their employee's from violation. I feel David Linowes, a professor of political economy and public policy emeritus at the University of Illinois, says it best when he explains. ?Nearly 20 years after U. S. Privacy Protection Commission submitted its recommendations urging business to voluntarily adopt privacy safeguards for its employment-related records, too many of the nation's largest industrial corporations still do not have adequate policies to protect sensitive confidential employee data from possible abuse?. Linowes surveyed 300 Fortune 500 companies about their policies on employee records. A total of 84 companies with a total of 3.2 million employees participated. In Linowes findings he discovered that 70 percent of the companies disclose personal information about employees to credit grantors, 47 percent give information to landlords, and 19 percent to charitable organizations. Believe it or not 38 percent of the compa nies don't even tell their employee's what type of information is stored ion, and 44 percent don't tell them how information is used from their own records. In the past it was a concern on what employers did to get information about their employees, now the extensive of the problem is what they are doing with it after they get the information. It was 20 years ago that his commission made recommendations to the President and Congress, That businesses be allowed to take steps on their own and handle privacy dilemmas. Linowes now states ?In view of the slow progress by too many companies during the past 20 years, it is apparent that adequate universal information privacy safeguards can only be achieved by the enactment of public policy legislation by the Congress and the President?. Legislation should allow employees to see information about themselves on which decisions are made. I feel that employees should have the right to see what is being held in their records, if they are not gr anted these privileges I believe they would feel almost threaten by managers and employment. Employees should also know who has access to these records. Employees have the right to be protected from unreasonable intrusions into their private lives. The question is, what is private and what is open to public eyes.