California state laws try as much as possible to safeguard the privacy of an employee. You are protected against access to your personal information by an employer. An employer cannot force you to avail crucial information about your health status and personal information which you will not like other people to know about. But, when it comes to workplace computers, your privacy as an employee is limited. The emails and other types of information stored or send via workplace computers are assumed to be the property of your employer. The organization can easily monitor private information you receive over the place of work computers.

Monitoring Employee Computer Activity

The law in California assumes the employee is acting in good will by monitoring your workplace computer. Remember, you can steal work place information and share with other people who will misuse it. The law allows your employee to keep watch of information which you are sending over workplace computers so that he will know whether you are sending out information which can sabotage the operation of your work place computer. The law is very complex; hence you need assistance from a lawyer if you feel like your rights have been infringed. The employer can as well monitor the information you send over the internet on your workplace to know whether you are doing the work you were employed to do or you are wasting the resources of the company in your personal communication.

Using Your Computer at Work Employee Rights

Different companies have policies regarding office computer use. You are not supposed to use your office computer for personal needs. The employer can monitor the activities on your work computer and even initiate disciplinary actions if you will be discovered to be misusing your work time and computer resources on personal needs.

Email and Privacy

The work computer is the property of your employer, if you send or receive emails via the office computer, then you are risking your privacy because the company can easily read them. Most companies keep on monitoring the email send via the office computers to know whether the employee is working or just conspiring with competitors to bring down the business. Try to limit your use of office computer if you will like to stay safe from personal information infringement.

Internet Usage at Work

Employee internet usage at work is subject to scrutiny. Your employer will like to know what you are doing with work place resources. He can track websites you visited and restrict some sites such as social sites for you to concentrate on doing what you were employed to do in his premises.

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An employee has fewer privacy rights in the workplace than they do in their personal life. For this reason, the employees should be cognizant of what information they display when it comes to the use of computers at work. Nowadays, bringing the computer into play has turned out to be a way of doing business each day. Consequently, various questions have emerged as to the legal rights of the workforce to using their work computers for personal reasons.

Notably, technology has permitted organizations to keep an eye on various aspects of their worker’s activities in the workplace. Nevertheless, although the staff may perceive that such monitoring is a breach of their personal life, this form of surveillance is permitted under the law. Arguably, the employees are motivated to do so over litigation and the enhanced role that electronic evidence plays in investigations by government agencies and lawsuits. Accordingly, an employee can be subject to punishment, or dismissed if they violate the policies of an organization concerning personal computer usage.

The use of Internet at Work

Recognizably, employers can trail the internet usage of the workers, in regards to the website visited, the time they spend online, and their engagement in other activities online such as using the social media. In similar fashion, an organization may prohibit the staff from using the workplace computers for their individual activities or deny them access to certain websites and the internet altogether. To that end, there is no noticeable right to privacy allegations against a company for restricting or monitoring the employees’ internet usage.

It can be reasoned that the law grants the employers the prudence to dictate the policies for the personal usage of workplace computers so as to ensure their security. Notably, if the staff are downloading programs and information on the internet, the workplace computers may become vulnerable to various technological problems and virus. The security may also be regarding the workers violating the confidentiality rules of their enterprise. Another reason is that an organization owns the data transmitted to and from the computers since they own the computers.

Email and Privacy 

If an organization uses an email system, then it is the property of the employer, and they are allowed to review its contents. For this reason, the email messages do not have a theme to any law regarding personal privacy. Therefore, a company is free to read and monitor the messages of their staff, with no restriction. The rationale behind this is that the employers are ensuring that the employees are not disclosing confidential information, and they are productive. Additionally, they also do so to decrease the possibility of any wrongdoing or misconduct by the employees. Hence, a company is well within its rights to monitor the emails of the staff.

Written Work Policies 

In like manner, nowadays, organizations employ written policies concerning personal computer usage. They do so to place the workers on notice of their stance on the use of the workplace computers for individual functions. Importantly, the policies are meant to support the corporations when they choose to punish or even dismiss a staff member as a consequence of using the workplace computers inappropriately.

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