The Persistence of Prying Eyes

Government reports too often gather dust rather than generate action, and unfortunately that seems the fate to which industry has consigned federal recommendations to protect the privacy of employees and customers. In its 1977 report, the U.S. Privacy Protection Commission expressed the belief that industry would voluntarily adopt fair information practices, but most have not. More than half the nation’s largest employers don’t tell workers what records they are keeping about them, and 38% have no policies to control how employee records should be made available to government agencies.

Following up on that 1977 report of the commission he chaired, University of Illinois professor David F. Linowes did another study and found that industry still does far too little to protect privacy. They make matters worse by using outdated or inaccurate records, and often sharing the data with outside credit agencies and landlords.

Some companies have, however, taken a few important steps to provide greater privacy. Since 1979, when Linowes made a similar follow-up survey, he found that more companies have definite policies on privacy. More give workers access to their records. And more will send corrections to anyone who has received inaccurate information in copies of personnel records.

Linowes wants Congress to limit to the essential minimum the information collected by employers. Further, he thinks employees should know what information has been collected and have the opportunity to check their files, and to seek legal remedies if their privacy has been violated. Those, he says, are the minimum guarantees of privacy, especially in the age of the computer which allows vast expansion of data collection and analysis.