个人隐私权：公司是否能监控员工私密的社交媒体？

2014-06-04 15:37:27来源：可可英语

　　Not Harmless

　　并非无害

　　Some critics say that this is an exaggeration -- that most of what people post on social networks is private and perfectly harmless, and has no bearing on their work. These critics also argue that companies often do these searches out of prudery or as ideological witch hunts.

　　有批评人士说这是夸大其词――人们在社交网络上发的东西大都是私密和完全无害的，而且和工作没有关系。他们还认为，公司进行这种搜索常常是出于太过谨慎或者意识形态上的迫害。

　　In fact, a significant chunk of employees acknowledge posting information that they shouldn't. Consider the results of the '2009 Electronic Business Communication Policies and Procedures Survey' from American Management Association and my organization, the ePolicy Institute. In the survey, 14% of employees admitted to emailing confidential company information to third parties; 6% sent customers' credit-card data and Social Security numbers; and another 6% transmitted patients' electronic protected health information.

　　事实上，相当多的员工都承认在网上发过不应该发的东西。美国管理协会(American Management Association) 和我所在的组织ePolicy Institute所进行的《2009年电子商务沟通政策及流程调查》(2009 Electronic Business Communication Policies and Procedures Survey)结果显示，14%的员工承认曾将公司保密信息通过电邮发给第三方;6%的员工曾发送客户的信用卡数据和社保数据;还有6%曾传输病人的电子保密健康信息。

　　Some of the examples I've come across show just how serious those types of employee missteps can be. Hospital employees have come under criticism or have been fired for discussing patients on Facebook -- which violated not only hospital policy but also the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. A city official accidentally put some city employees' private information on a public website, then linked to the site from Twitter, which exposed the workers to potential identity theft and left the city vulnerable to regulatory action, negative publicity and lawsuits.

　　我所发现的有些案例表明了这种员工过失的严重程度。医院员工因为在Facebook上讨论病人而受到批评或被解雇――公开讨论病人的做法不仅违反医院的政策，同时也违反联邦《医疗保险转移变更与责任法》(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)。一名市政官员不小心将部分市政员工的私人信息放到了一个公共网站上，然后从Twitter链接到了这个网站，这种行为有可能导致员工身份被盗，市政府也可能会因此受到监管、公众形象受损甚至遭到起诉。

　　In many other cases, employees have griped about their company online, or posted joke videos that put it in a bad light and took a considerable amount of damage control to undo.

　　在其他很多案例中，员工在网上抱怨自己的公司，或者上传有损公司形象的搞笑视频，然后又要花很大精力弥补自己的过失带来的影响。

　　Strict monitoring allows employers to spot potential problems early, get the information offline as quickly as possible and discipline the employees involved. Along with keeping an eye on what happens on internal computer networks and public social media, companies should ask for access to employees' Facebook accounts and other private social media.

　　严格监控能让雇主尽早发现潜在的问题，可以尽快将不当信息从网上删除并对当事员工予以惩戒。除了监控内部电脑网络和公共社交媒体上的情况，公司还应该要求员工提供Facebook账号及其他私人社交媒体账号信息。

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