Curry never dreamed that anyone would ever see these messages. Leonard assured her that she promptly erased the messages right after she read them. Curry let her know that she did the same with Leonard's messages. Both of them assumed that when they hit the delete key the messages would permanently be erased from the system. When Curry was due for her annual review, her manager decided to check her e-mail communications and found the messages she had sent to Leonard. He was furious that she was so critical of Johnson and Dresser and also chastised her for wasting so much time sending "trivial, gossipy" e-mail messages. He told her that she did not seem to be a real team player and that maybe she should look around for a company that had a philosophy closer to her own. The end result was that despite her excellent track record as an analyst, Curry received a small salary increment and a mixed performance review. Curry was completely shocked by this. She could not believe that her messages were not considered completely confidential. She expected such confidentiality especially since she was not told anything to the contrary. Indeed, in her view she had been led to believe by the IS department that her privacy would be protected. Among those she called in the company to complain about her treatment was Perry. She told him that she had thought that her e-mail messages would be confidential. She stressed that she would be loath to continue using e-mail if everything she wrote would one day be scrutinized by her manager and "Who knows who else at this paranoid company!" When asked about the legal implications of all this, Perry noted that according to current law the company was well within its rights to read an employee's email. He wondered, however, if the company was living up to its high moral ideals by inspecting these messages. Isn't it a violation of confidentiality to read someone's postal letters? Why should electronic mail be any different? Should the company be proactive and declare electronic mail off limits except under unusual circumstances? Should it even continue to collect and store the large volume of e-mail messages generated by its many employees? Spinello (2003) Case studies in Information Technology Ethics(2nded), New Jersey: Pearson
Curry never dreamed that anyone would ever see these messages. Leonard assured her that she promptly erased the messages right after she read them. Curry let her know that she did the same with Leonard's messages. Both of them assumed that when they hit the delete key the messages would permanently be erased from the system. When Curry was due for her annual review, her manager decided to check her e-mail communications and found the messages she had sent to Leonard. He was furious that she was so critical of Johnson and Dresser and also chastised her for wasting so much time sending "trivial, gossipy" e-mail messages. He told her that she did not seem to be a real team player and that maybe she should look around for a company that had a philosophy closer to her own. The end result was that despite her excellent track record as an analyst, Curry received a small salary increment and a mixed performance review. Curry was completely shocked by this. She could not believe that her messages were not considered completely confidential. She expected such confidentiality especially since she was not told anything to the contrary. Indeed, in her view she had been led to believe by the IS department that her privacy would be protected. Among those she called in the company to complain about her treatment was Perry. She told him that she had thought that her e-mail messages would be confidential. She stressed that she would be loath to continue using e-mail if everything she wrote would one day be scrutinized by her manager and "Who knows who else at this paranoid company!" When asked about the legal implications of all this, Perry noted that according to current law the company was well within its rights to read an employee's email. He wondered, however, if the company was living up to its high moral ideals by inspecting these messages. Isn't it a violation of confidentiality to read someone's postal letters? Why should electronic mail be any different? Should the company be proactive and declare electronic mail off limits except under unusual circumstances? Should it even continue to collect and store the large volume of e-mail messages generated by its many employees? Spinello (2003) Case studies in Information Technology Ethics(2nded), New Jersey: Pearson