Privacy advocates and employee unions have been pushing for fair-monitoring legislation … The bill … would require employers to tell new hires that they may be monitored via phone, computer, or e-mail. It would also force managers to notify workers when they are being surveyed – possibly by a beep tone or red light – and to explain how the data will be used.
Predictor: Whalen, John
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Wired magazine, John Whalen does a bit of surveillance at the American Society for Industrial Security’s annual convention, and quotes Lawrence Fineran of the National Association of Manufacturers. Whalen writes: ”On Capitol Hill, … privacy advocates and employee unions have been pushing for fair-monitoring legislation since the mid-1980s. The latest attempt (1993’s Privacy for Consumers and Workers Act) expired in Washington gridlock, a victim of the legislative coma brought on by the prospect of health-care reform (but also dinged by the manufacturing lobby). Privacy advocates say the bill will be back this session. It would require employers to tell new hires that they may be monitored via phone, computer, or e-mail. It would also force managers to notify workers when they are being surveyed – possibly by a beep tone or red light – and to explain how the data will be used. ‘Employees have the right to dignity,’ submits Lawrence Fineran of the National Association of Manufacturers, the front-line foe of the bill. ‘But,’ he says, ‘the employer certainly has a right to any kind of data generated by an employee on an employer’s time and on an employer’s equipment.'”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: You’re Not Paranoid: They Really Are Watching You: Surveillance in the Workplace is Getting Digitized – and Getting Worse
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.03/security_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney