PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

high-tech technology background with eyes on computer display

Is Any Privacy Left in the Workplace?

Privacy in the Workplace

Recently, in United States v. Ziegler, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that under the Fourth Amendment, a private sector employee has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his computer if the employer’s computer administrator has access to that computer.

Employer Liability for Not Monitoring Its Employees’ Computer Use

Employment Privacy Cubicles

The United States v. Ziegler case I wrote about in a previous post brings to mind a radical employment law case decided last December in New Jersey. [Thanks to Charlie Sullivan and Timothy Glynn for bringing the case to my attention]. The case is Doe v. XYC, 887 A.2d 1156 (N.J. Super. 2005). Since I couldn’t find a version […]

Using Lawsuits to Unmask Anonymous Bloggers

Anonymous Bloggers

An interesting recently-filed lawsuit raises the issue of whether a company can file a lawsuit just to find out the identity of an anonymous blogger in order to fire him. The case involves an employee of Allegheny Energy Service who posted an anonymous comment to a Yahoo! message board devoted to his company. He made the posting […]

Genetic Testing: Further Debate with Richard Epstein

Privacy of Genetic Information

Richard Epstein has posted a reply continuing our debate over whether employers should be able to use genetic testing information to make employment decisions regarding employees. Here are the posts in our debate so far: 1. Solove, IBM vs. NBA: Using Employee Genetic Information 2. Epstein, Two Cheers for Genetic Testing 3. Solove, A Reply to Richard Epstein […]

A Reply to Richard Epstein on Genetic Testing

Genetic Privacy

In his first post to the relatively new Chicago Law Faculty Blog(which has turned out to be a really interesting blog by the way), Professor Richard Epstein argues against my recent post about genetic testing in the workplace. Epstein disagrees with my general view that it is better to restrict employers from using genetic information in making employment decisions.

IBM vs. NBA: Using Employee Genetic Information

Genetic Privacy

This week, IBM announced that it would not use genetic information in making any employment decision: On October 10, IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano signed a revision of the company’s equal opportunity policy specifying that IBM would not “use genetic information in its employment decisions.” In doing so, Big Blue became the first major corporation to proactively take […]