Workplace Privacy Research Articles

Evaluating the utility and challenges associated with "anonymous" patients in the electronic medical record

Abstract Electronic medical records (EMRs) allow for the creation of "test" patients that can be used for training new users, testing changes before they go "live", simulating the placement of orders, or for a range of similar applications. Test patients are commonly utilized in EMR validation, support, or “playground” environments that might use a copy of the production EMR database but do not connect to the official medical record to prevent billing errors or patient harm. However, there are a variety of cases where it is useful to have test or anonymous patients within the EMR production environment as well. One example of this is infectious disease testing for employee blood-borne pathogen exposure (e.g., needlestick injury) that may need to be stored in a de-identified or restricted manner to comply with workplace privacy regulations. There are also instances, generally in emergency situations, where a medical record is created for a patient about whom little identifying information is known. In this example, these so-called "anonymous" patients are assigned random or arbitrarily pre-determined birthdates (e.g., 1/1/1900) and on occasion have no sex assigned in their chart. This poses a variety of challenges from a laboratory standpoint as it can be difficult to provide accurate normal ranges for laboratory results that are age and/or gender specific. Additionally, this has on occasion resulted in an inability to identify appropriate blood products as these recommendations are similarly based on age and gender. Another layer of complexity comes as additional information regarding the patient is made available, and health care information services merges data from a previously anonymous account to a specific patient record. Such mergers can result in cancellation of pending orders, errors in reporting laboratory results, or other complications depending on the specific process utilized. Surprisingly, there is little to no literature regarding the use cases for these “test” and “anonymous” patients or the challenges associated with their existence in the EMR. To explore this topic, we identified three classes of patients in our institutional EMR: true virtual “test” patients, “anonymous” patients that were subsequently identified, and “anonymous” patients that were never identified. Basic characteristics of these patients (sex and date of birth) and available laboratory results were compiled. Along with this, we present a series of instructional cases adapted from actual patient safety events at our institution involving anonymous patient records. These illustrative cases highlight the utility of these “test” and “anonymous” patients, as well as the challenges these pose on an institutional and individual level. Lastly, we provide recommendations on how best to manage similar scenarios that may arise.

A pragmatic compromise? The role of Article 88 GDPR in upholding privacy in the workplace

A pragmatic compromise? The role of Article 88 GDPR in upholding privacy in the workplace

The Impact of Emerging Technologies on Workplace Privacy Case Study-Electronic Monitoring

Due to the COVID-19 epidemic pandemic, the Internet invades our life aspects and activities, the way we work or shop has changed, the educational system has changed, and the social structure and many other things in our lives have changed. In this research work, we analyze three hypotheses regarding electronic monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first hypothesis is the relationship between Electronic Monitoring and safety, the second is the relationship between Electronic Monitoring and privacy, and the third is related to acceptance of electronic monitoring in the workplace. For that, we have surveyed the COVID-19 pandemic to measure the effects of new technologies-in particular-electronic monitoring on productivity, creativity, and the effect of social networks in increasing the acceptance of electronic monitoring in the workplace. Our results show that the attitudes toward electronic monitoring have not changed over the years and a higher percentage of employees who were polled do not accept being monitored at the workplace, which means the introduction of new technologies in our life has not changed the opinion of people about electronic monitoring.

Privacy at work

Today, there is a widespread recognition of the horizontal effect of fundamental rights. The labourcontract represented everywhere, in democratic systems, the natural framework for the development of such an effectiveness of constitutional precepts and values, with the need of answering to the question of whether-and to what extent–the interests that are in the basis of the employer's power require and justify in casuthe limitation of the employee ́s freedom.The Portuguese Labour Code, in articles 14 and following, expressly recognizes certain fundamental rights of the human being in the workplace,including the privacy. The employee has, in fact, the right to expect a certain degree of respect for his privacy in the workplace, which is where he develops an important part of his relations with others. This right shall, however, be balanced with other rights and legitimate interests of the employer, in particular the rights to effectively manage his enterprise and specially to protect himself from liability or damage caused by employee ́s actions.The case law –namely that of the Supreme Court of Justice -has influenced the evolution of the Labour Law, contributing to the interpretation of the lawand the resolution of some controversial employment issues, e.g. in matters related to fundamental rights. In the final part of this article we will seek toprovide a brief overview of some innovative case law issued by the Social Chamber of the Portuguese Supreme Court, particularly after entering into force the Portuguese Labour Code in 2003.

Workplace privacy. A possible common approach of two models

Workplace privacy. A possible common approach of two models

Maintaining Male Exclusivity: Porcelain Privilege in the Military

Current debates about bathrooms and bathroom policy contribute to a long history of how space shapes norms and expectations about privacy and gender equity in the workplace. The military serves as a significant site of discussion, particularly as the Department of Defense moves forward with efforts to integrate women into combat positions. Relying on an analysis of 27 focus groups with a total of 198 participants we collected from Special Operations in the U.S. Army, we examine bathrooms as a site where male soldiers contest and resist female integration. Using Sasson-Levy and Katz’s concept of institutional de-gendering and re-gendering, we argue that men’s resistance to gender-neutral toilets is an effort to re-gender Special Forces and maintain the hegemonic masculine culture that acutely defines it.

Is That Lawful? Data Privacy and Fitness Trackers in the Workplace

Data collected from fitness trackers worn by employees could be very useful for businesses. The sharing of this data with employers is already a well-established practice in the United States, and companies in Europe are showing an interest in the introduction of such devices among their workforces. Our argument is that employers processing their employees’ fitness trackers data is unlikely to be lawful under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Wearable fitness trackers, such as Fitbit and AppleWatch devices, collate intimate data about the wearer’s location, sleep and heart rate. As a result, we consider that they not only represent a novel threat to the privacy and autonomy of the wearer, but that the data gathered constitutes ‘health data’ regulated by Article 9. Processing health data, including, in our view, fitness tracking data, is prohibited unless one of the specified conditions in the GDPR applies. After examining a number of legitimate bases which employers can rely on, we conclude that the data processing practices considered do not comply with the principle of lawfulness that is central to the GDPR regime. We suggest alternative schema by which wearable fitness trackers could be integrated into an organization to support healthy habits amongst employees, but in a manner that respects the data privacy of the individual wearer. Fitness Trackers, GDPR, Privacy, Data Protection, Employment, Principle of Lawfulness, Fitbit, Apple Watch

Research Handbook on Labour, Business and Human Rights Law, edited by Janice R.Bellace and Beryl terHaar. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK, 2019, 528 pp., ISBN: 978‐1‐78642‐310‐7, £195.00 (US$290.00)

Research Handbook on Labour, Business and Human Rights Law, edited by Janice R.Bellace and Beryl terHaar. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK, 2019, 528 pp., ISBN: 978‐1‐78642‐310‐7, £195.00 (US$290.00)

Teaching Workplace Privacy Issues with a Big Data Group Project

Teaching Workplace Privacy Issues with a Big Data Group Project

СОЦИАЛЬНО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЕ КОНФЛИКТЫ В РАМКАХ «КАПИТАЛИЗМА ПЛАТФОРМ»

The article is devoted to the analysis of the structure, the peculiarities of functioning and the socio-economic and political effects of the «platform capitalism». The basis of this model is the network effects produced by the integrated information and communication infrastructure, which contribute to the monopolization and the constant expansion of platform companies into new areas. The principle of functioning of this infrastructure is the continuous collection and further monetization of data extracted from the interactions of individuals among themselves or with one of the elements of a digitalized economy or government structures. Such an infrastructure — forms a potential threat of strengthening state and corporate control over citizens. In addition, the activities of platform companies produce negative effects on the labor market, reinforcing the process of precarization of employment. The integrated information and communication infrastructure of platform companies form a system of a kind of «digital Taylorism», which deprives the employee of autonomy and privacy in the workplace. The influence of digitalization, subjected to the technocratic logic of the neoliberal model of governance in democratic countries, strengthens the de-politicization of relations between the citizen and the state and further changes the balance of power between labor and capital in favor of the latter. Large-scale protests of the last years against the companies of “capitalism of platforms” demonstrated the structural contradictions of this model and formed new forms of organization and actions of grassroots workers of the “digital economy”.

Privacy at Work: A Review and a Research Agenda for a Contested Terrain

Privacy in the workplace is a pivotal concern for employees and employers. Employees expect to be in control of the personal information and access they provide to the organization. Employers, however, expect extensive information regarding their employees as well as extensive access to employees’ presence. The chasm between these two often competing expectations has been magnified by regulatory and technological trends. We begin the review by integrating viewpoints from multiple disciplines to disentangle definitions of privacy and to delineate the privacy contexts of information privacy and work environment privacy. We then identify the key stakeholders of privacy in the workplace and describe their interests. This discussion serves as a platform for our stakeholders’ privacy calculus model, which in turn provides a framework within which we review empirical findings on workplace privacy from organizational research and related disciplines and from which we identify gaps in the existing research. We then advance an extensive research agenda. Finally, we draw attention to emerging technologies and laws that have far-reaching implications for employees and employers. Our review provides a road map for researchers and practitioners to navigate the contested terrain of workplace privacy.

Workplace Privacy: How Job Types Matter

Performance Improvement QuarterlyVolume 33, Issue 1 p. 31-54 Research Article Workplace Privacy: How Job Types Matter Virginia W. Kupritz PhD, Virginia W. Kupritz PhDSearch for more papers by this author Virginia W. Kupritz PhD, Virginia W. Kupritz PhDSearch for more papers by this author First published: 19 August 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/piq.21316Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume33, Issue12020Pages 31-54 RelatedInformation

High Tech Monitoring versus Privacy in the Workplace (Analysis of the Law and Case Law of the Czech Republic)

Modern technologies ask anew the old question about how employees can be checked during working hours so that legitimate interests of their employers are safeguarded. The answer cannot be solely technological, as the employees right to privacy, even in the workplace, is protected at the highest constitutional as well as international levels. Employers when defending their rights and interest are therefore far from free to use the potential of available technological devices in full and without limits. To strike the right balance between legitimate interests and fundamental rights is by no means easy, as the present text tries to demonstrate by summarizing and analyzing the existing Czech approach to the issue. On the one hand, Czech law on the protection of privacy of employees in the workplace, as well as the authorities applying it, are principally in line with generally accepted European standards. On the other hand, however, this basic consensus on values and their substantive and procedural legal safeguards does not mean that Czech law currently answers all questions and leads employers safely outside the restricted zone of prohibited ways of employee monitoring. The focus of the text is thus directed at those provisions of legal acts, decisions of the highest courts, opinions of supervisory authorities and arguments of commentators that influence the way in which the aforementioned rights and interest are balanced in the current Czech legal practice.

Belgium, Courts, Privacy and Data Protection: An Inventory of Belgian Case Law From the Pre-GDPR Regime (1995–2015)

This Contribution focuses on the use made by the Belgian Constitutional Court, the Cour de Cassation and the ordinary courts of the right to privacy and the right to have personal data protected as anchored in the Belgian Constitution, the Belgian Data Protection Act and the European sources. A selection of their judgements, all dating from the era before the new EU Data Protection Regulation, are discussed along the lines of their impact on health privacy, workplace privacy, surveillance and social media privacy. Our analysis shows a great deal of European loyalty on behalf of the Belgian Constitutional Court towards European trends to favour privacy and data protection. In stark contrast stands the case law of the Cour de Cassation mainly focused at preserving prosecutorial interests and employer’s interests at the detriment of privacy and data protection interests. In our conclusions we discuss tendencies towards cosmopolitanism and tribalism, the dramatic impact of evidence law and patterns of litigation. Our analysis covers the data protection era where Belgian law was indirectly governed by EU Directive 95/46/EC of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (OJ L 281, 23 November 1995, 31). The Directive contributed to the roll-out of data protection and harmonized the data protection provision in the EU Member States but suffered from implementation weaknesses and lack of recognition. A certain lack of recognition of the importance of data protection in the European (and Belgian legal) landscape disappeared with the the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”) (OJ L 119, 5 Ma.2016, 1–88 ) that repealed Directive 95/46/EC and came into force on 25 May 2018 with direct applicable provisions. Further studies are needed to study the impact of the new European provisions on the work and output of the Belgian courts.

High Tech Monitoring Versus Privacy in the Workplace in the Law and Case Law of the Czech Republic

Modern technologies ask anew the old question about how employees can be checked during working hours so that legitimate interests of their employers are safeguarded. The answer cannot be solely technological, as the employees right to privacy, even in the workplace, is protected at the highest constitutional as well as international levels. Employers when defending their rights and interest are therefore far from free to use the potential of available technological devices in full and without limits. To strike the right balance between legitimate interests and fundamental rights is by no means easy, as the present text tries to demonstrate by summarizing and analyzing the existing Czech approach to the issue. On the one hand, Czech law on the protection of privacy of employees in the workplace, as well as the authorities applying it, are principally in line with generally accepted European standards. On the other hand, however, this basic consensus on values and their substantive and procedural legal safeguards does not mean that Czech law currently answers all questions and leads employers safely outside the restricted zone of prohibited ways of employee monitoring. The focus of the text is thus directed at those provisions of legal acts, decisions of the highest courts, opinions of supervisory authorities and arguments of commentators that influence the way in which the aforementioned rights and interest are balanced in the current Czech legal practice.

Covert monitoring in the workplace: understanding the legal implications

A recent case involving a cosmetic doctor who was found to be secretly monitoring confidential conversations has thrown into sharp relief issues surrounding privacy in the workplace. The law on covert monitoring states that it should only be used in exceptional circumstances. Mark Stevens looks at the outcomes of previous cases and sets out key considerations for employers

A Research on the Legal Issues Related to Employment Tests

With the advance of science and technology, different types of tests are widely applied to the selection procedure by the employers, relevant issues become more and more prevalent. To clarify the legal issues about the usage of tests in the workplace, this article will introduce the practice of the laws respectively in the US, the UK, and Taiwan, analysing the similarities and differences among them, and come up with the proper way to deal with the issues regarding tests. As we all know, human resources are the most important asset of the enterprise. To make sure the job applicants or the employees have sufficient competence to complete the tasks and are able to make the most profits for enterprises, a large number of employers would implement the tests to find out the characteristics, health condition and competence of them so that the best employment decisions can be made. There is nothing to be blamed that the employers pursue the best profits, whilst in the selection process the employers probably discover the innate and unchangeable defects of the applicants or the employees, and take further adverse action against them, which can lead to a chain of issues concerning employment discrimination and privacy. In the US, the implementation of employment tests doesn’t necessarily constitute discrimination even if the employer obtain the personal information of the applicants or the employees through tests. Under the anti-discrimination laws, the action of the employers will not be able to be seen as employment discrimination unless the applicants or the employees suffer adverse treatment after taking the tests. The American with Disability Act, in substance, has its name of anti-discrimination law, also has the function of indirectly protecting workplace privacy. Even though the employers are allowed to conduct the employment tests, they cannot take any adverse action against the employees, except for the special conditions set by the law. In contrast, relevant laws in the UK focus on protecting personal privacy, which means tests done by employers will be treated as the privacy issues. Once the employer collect information from the applicants or the employees without following the requirements of relevant laws, he or she might constitute infringement of the workplace privacy. The Data Protection Act and the Employment Practice Code put the limitation on employers’ rights to gather those information they need from the applicants or the employees, especially information which can be categorized as what is so-called “sensitive data”. Upon collecting, processing or using the personal information of employees through the tests, the employers are asked to make sure they meet one or more requirements before performing the tests. Also, the sensitive data can be obtained only if the employers meet at least one special requirement, which has the stricter limitation. On top of that, the eight principles regulated in the Data Protection Act play an important role in workplace privacy protection. The employers who would like to gather information of the employees must follow all the principles. Even employers who can legally implement the tests to acquire the information from the applicants or the employees, also need to ensure the information being processed properly and have no adverse effects on the applicants or the employees. In Taiwan, tests in the workplace would be regarded as the privacy issues in principle. Currently, Article 5(2) of Employment Service Act and the Article 1-1 of the Enforcement Rules of Employment Service Act are the mainly relevant laws which regulate employment tests. Also, the Personal Information Protection Act in Taiwan covers the issues about collecting, processing and using the personal information. Furthermore, there are also some laws set from the perspective of anti-discrimination, which are beneficial to the establishment of the laws concerning employment tests in Taiwan. After further analysis of different legal systems in the US, the UK and Taiwan, it’s clear to discover the issued treated in different way in different legal systems. As the employment tests are used widely and frequently, the concern for the issues arise, the article suggests that the dual system avoiding employment discrimination and protecting the workplace privacy should be established without overlap. Also, the laws must be flexible, adjustable and in line with the social development.

Fear for Doocing and Digital Privacy in the Workplace: A Dual Pathway Model

Little is known about how the fear for doocing and the need for digital privacy manifests at the workplace. We address this knowledge gap with a specific interest in the correlation of fear for doocing with age and gender through an online survey, realized with 119 participants. Results suggest that employees are not always aware of the risk of doocing and they often do not know in specific terms the social networking policies of their organizations. In addition, there is a double effect of employees’ age on the need for digital privacy that is evident in the dual pathway model about the moderated mediation effect. Said in different terms, men and millennials are the employees who feel deeper the need for digital privacy in the workplace, rather than women and older participants.

Electronic monitoring in public organizations: evidence from US local governments

ABSTRACTTechnology use in the workplace expands the ability to monitor employees through activities such as website tracking, email scanning, and social media monitoring. Monitoring is a fundamental aspect of the relationship between organizations, employees, and stakeholders and can affect perceptions of privacy, autonomy, and trust in the workplace. However, electronic monitoring is little investigated in public management research and we have minimal knowledge about the factors that prompt public managers to adopt electronic monitoring. Focusing on small- and medium-sized US municipalities, we investigate types of electronic monitoring and how organizational, sociopolitical, and technological factors shape electronic monitoring intensity. We test our hypotheses with data from a 2014 national survey of 2,500 local managers, website coding data, and US Census data. We find that electronic monitoring, especially monitoring online activities, is a response to organizational centralization, participation of internal stakeholders, social media use, and technology concerns.

Translation and Development of the Chinese-Version Patient Privacy Scale

The unauthorized releasing of confidential patient information is a serious problem worldwide. Nurses, the healthcare professionals who are in most frequent contact with patients, have access to a significant amount of confidential patient information and play a key role in protecting patient privacy. However, currently, there is no proper tool to measure the level to which clinical nurses protect the privacy of their patients in China. To translate the patient privacy scale (PPS) into Chinese and to test the reliability and validity of this Chinese version. The original scale was developed by Özturk, Bahcecik, and Özçelik (2014) to identify whether nurses protect or violate patient privacy in the workplace. This study used the "back translation" method to translate the scale. A total of 616 nurses in two tertiary hospitals in the Western region of China were enrolled to test the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity of the translated scale. The Cronbach's coefficients of the total scale and its 5 factors ranged from .84 to .94; the split half reliability was .91; the test-retest reliability was .82; and the content validity index was .95. Explanatory factor analysis revealed that the 5 factors explained 64.98% of the total variance. The Chinese version of the PPS is reliable and valid, and may be used to reliably assess the behaviors of nurses with regard to protecting the privacy of their patients. The scale may also be used to evaluate the effects of training on patient privacy protection.