The phenomenal rise, and technological sophistication, of workplace surveillance leads the list of the Top 10 privacy stories of the year 2000, according to a Privacy Foundation analysis. Also in the Top 10 are proposed new medical privacy rules; the FBI's . . .
The phenomenal rise, and technological sophistication, of workplace surveillance leads the list of the Top 10 privacy stories of the year 2000, according to a Privacy Foundation analysis. Also in the Top 10 are proposed new medical privacy rules; the FBI's controversial use of the Carnivore email wiretap; DoubleClick's stalled plan to track consumers online; and the arrival of chief privacy officers in corporate boardrooms.

"The rise of the Internet has sent a flood tide of privacy concerns through business and society, and the waves are breaking big-time in the workplace," said Stephen Keating, executive director of the Privacy Foundation. "Two-thirds of major American firms now do some type of in-house electronic surveillance, while an estimated 27 percent of firms monitor email."

Some of the fallout from that surveillance can be measured in lost jobs, as entities ranging from Dow Chemical to the Central Intelligence Agency have fired or disciplined employees for alleged misuse of workplace communication networks.

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