Rachel Emma Silverman reports: Employee wellness firms and insurers are working with companies to mine data about the prescription drugs workers use, how they shop and even whether they vote, to predict their individual health needs and recommend treatments. Trying to stem rising health-care costs, some companies, including retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc., are paying firms…
Category: Workplace
UCOP ordered spyware installed on UC data networks
UtotheRescue reports: The San Francisco Chronicle has coverage of an issue that has been circulating on faculty email networks at UC Berkeley for a few days. The piece, “Cal professors fear UC bosses will snoop on them,” is behind a paywall. The first sentence reads, “UC Berkeley faculty members are buzzing over news that University of California President Janet…
Snooping on Employee’s Emails in the EU: Don’t Believe the Hype
Earlier this week, I noted a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that concerned workplace privacy. Apparently, the UK media’s coverage of that ruling has been variously dramatic or inaccurate. So much so, it seems, that Andrew Cutting, Council of Europe spokesperson/media officer issued a statement about media misrepresentation of the ruling: Certain parts of the…
Private messages at work can be read by employers, says court
Kevin Rawlinson reports: The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said a firm that read a worker’s Yahoo Messenger chats sent while he was at work was within its rights. Judges said he breached the company’s rules and that his employer had a right to check he was completing his work. Such policies must also protect…