by Mel Dawn
Corporations who secretly monitor employees are threatening your personal data!
About half a century ago all personal information on one person was kept on pieces of paper. Those papers were kept in a folder in a metal cabinet. To steal a person's identity meant physically going onto the site where your pieces of paper were kept and taking them from your folder. It happened, but it wasn't common.
Now people's information is stored on computer servers that are connected to each other and the internet. Hackers can log in and steal your information, whether it is your credit card information or personal details, to create a new fake identity. The hackers may work for said company or they may be logging in from a remote location. So far, no computer network has proven to be 100% secure. Nor are humans infallible, many employees have copied information onto their own personal laptops, which have been stolen. Likely you'll find one story a day in the news about people's personal information being compromised.
In the past ten years a new threat has arisen. Increasingly, employers have been monitoring their employees. It's not usually a case of if it will happen, it's a case of what time of day it will happen. Software is so readily available. Have a search online and you'll find a full software package to monitor employee usage starting at $34.99 and going up from there, with statistics offered on the highest package.
Originally, employers would physically monitor employees. They'd discreetly walk past to see what they were doing. They'd peer over their shoulders to make sure they were following the correct protocol. Work would be perused for mistakes and errors, before being handing back to the employees for correction and distribution.
It all started with the cameras in banks. Cameras to monitor the people who came in through the doors. Were they bank robbers? Cameras to make sure that the bank employees wouldn't steal money from the till. Then it moved onto store security. Cameras to monitor the customers to prevent them from shoplifting. Cameras to prevent employees having a hand in the till. Cameras in museums and art galleries. Cameras outside on the main streets for riot prevention.
Monitoring moved onto computers. Employers would log onto a computer and have a look at the hard drive contents. Was it all work or was the employee downloading music during working hours? Were they downloading pornographic materials? Working on their resume?
It moved onto employers reading everyone's email. A chain letter or happy birthday personal message was okay, but not emailing company secrets to the competitor.
Telephone conversations started being monitored. This is common when talking to an operator or even calling an online store to place an order. At least they tell you the conversation is being monitored for clarity and accuracy.
Then it turned into anything being done over the computer network was stored and perused. Every fax you sent, scan you do, photocopy you make or printout you do is stored in a hard drive so the contents can be sorted through later. Are you photocopying your resume at work? Are you scanning personal photos? Faxing a competitor your resume? Printing out your son's school report? If you are, your employer already knows about it.
Employers know each and every website you have visited. Let's hope you're visiting them on your break and didn't spend five hours on the Net last week!
Finally, one of the most despicable methods of tracking, is software that tracks each and every keystroke you make and records what you do in real time. The "video" can be played back by your manager at any time, for their amusement. Has your computer inexplicably slowed down? Likely you are being monitored.
It's a wonder we're all still employed after these nefarious practices have been monitoring us every second of the day!
Now, onto the main point of the article. After ALL of this employee monitoring, what is happening with your personal information? How exactly is is being compromised?
Let's start with medical information. You visit your doctor, who sends you off to the lab. Gosh, you might have contracted gonorrhea on that trip to Jamaica! No problem, a quick lab test and some antibiotics and you're ready for your next romantic fling. But….
At the doctor's office, your lab test hasn't shown up in his electronic software. So, a call goes out to the lab. Employees check and the test was sent to the electronic delivery software. Next, a call to the software company. The employee who answers the telephone has a look on the computer. Yes, it was received, they can reset it and forward it onto the doctor again. Not sure what happened there. Now, the doctor has it, great, and you're free and clear, turns out you just have a bad bladder infection.
That's great, or is it?
What just happened? Exactly how many people saw your lab test? The lab and the doctor right? Wrong!
Here's what really happened. You have three businesses involved here: the lab, the doctor's office and the software company. We know all companies monitor their employees.
At the lab, when the doctor called to find out if the lab test had been done, the lab employee was being monitored over the telephone. So, your lab test results were heard by two people at the lab, not one. Then, at the doctor's clinic since the doctor is not the owner, he is actually an employee, the owner of the clinic decides to see what he has done on the computer that day. He's looked for your gonorrhea test results,
Then, when the doctor couldn't find your results, he called the software company. The rep at the company reset your lab results and resent on to the clinic. But, the employee was considered untrustworthy and was being monitored. One person wasn't monitoring the employee, four people were. The IT guy, Human Resources and two managers. They needed to back each other up. So, four more people knew all about your gonotrhea test and four people know that while it was negative, it was a very embarrassing test to take.
After you're read through this, aren't you outraged? Only three people should have known about your lab test results. You, your doctor and the lab, But since all employees are being monitored now, another ten people have come into the mix and also know your lab test results. Let's not forgot that even the records of the employees being monitored are being stored on the computer server. They can be viewed by any IT or manager at any time. So, while your bladder infection has now cleared up, your gonorrhoea test will be viewed over and over again while the managers review "employee performance".
Everyone has the right to privacy. Start writing letters to government agencies to stop employee monitoring. It's a violation of privacy, it's a violation of trust between employee and employer, and a violation of trust being a physician and a patient. Contact PIPPEDA to lodge complaints or the identical association in your area. Tell them enough is enough, you want your privacy now!
What can you do to protect your information? Close as many as your online accounts as you can. Work with paper and cash as much as you can. The more you work on a computer, the greater your chances of having your neighbour belittle you one day, as they know all bout your gonorrhoea test after your trip to Jamaica. Fuck, who doesn't know you had a gonorrhoea test? Maybe your cat?
