Privacy concerns over employer access to employee social media

Brown, M.ORCID: 0000-0002-5065-9263 and Dent, C.ORCID: 0000-0002-1801-713X (2018) Privacy concerns over employer access to employee social media. Monash University Law Review, 43 (3). pp. 796-827.

Abstract

Amid increasing concerns about the encroachment of work on private life, this article examines the extent to which Australian employers should be able to access their employees' personal social media posts, with specific reference to ongoing surveillance and the forced disclosure of passwords. Both the federal workplace and privacy legislation are discussed to consider the extent to which they offer appropriate protections. Given their limitations, other options, including a tort of privacy and a workplace privacy regulator, are raised that may better protect the privacy and freedom of expression of employees. Black's notion of 'decentred regulation' is applied to the current, and proposed, law in order to better understand the positives, and negatives, of the legal controls over employer access to the social media of their employees.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	School of Law
Publisher:	Monash University. Faculty of Law
Copyright:	© 2018 Monash University
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/41549

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