More and more jobs involve working with computers. Monitoring employees’ movements on the internet is common in most serious businesses for several reasons. You are not supposed to be surfing or chatting for personal reasons during work hours. What’s more important, the employer wants to make sure that you don’t bring the company down with you if you are caught doing illegal transactions on the internet. I find this perfectly reasonable and don’t consider it an intrusion on privacy.
Monitoring employees through their cell phones is another matter though. Employers are no saints. Of course they would want to amuse themselves by checking up on your movements after work if they had an opportunity to do so. If your company cell phone has been installed with GPS technology that can track your whereabouts, leave the phone at work! You might even find it relaxing for other reasons. But if you are a rising star, moving up the career ladder and want to be available at all hours, by all means – bring the phone, but stay out of fishy places!
Other means of monitoring, like cameras in public places, are more difficult to influence or even to avoid for that matter. To most of us they don’t pose a threat though, at least not in Sweden. Rather they represent security as they are supposed not only to reveal criminal actions but to prevent them from happening in the first place. There is always a risk that technology is being misused, but as with so many other necessary evils, I would say that the advantages outweigh any disadvantages.
With all the monitoring surrounding us, it is a great relief to know that the most important aspect of privacy can’t be taken from us, and that is our thoughts. At least mind reading hasn’t been invented – yet!
