Bit-Wise But Privacy Foolish: Smarter E-Messaging Technologies Call for a Return to Core Privacy Principles

Abstract

This article focuses on privacy issues in the e-messaging environment. Many articles in this area address only a single technology in isolation, for example, e-mail. Our work goes a significant step further by analyzing the five forms of e-messaging prevalent today (voice, texting, email, instant messaging, and social networking) and proposing an overarching policy framework to achieve better balance among competing employer-employee interests. It is our position that the privacy issues brought on by Internet-based technologies will continue to increase, creating more uncertainty, unless policymakers quickly adopt a user’s functional perspective that encompasses today’s technologies and those technologies that are yet emerge.