Before we dive into the topic, I would like to remind you that the Help Desk is here to help you with your biggest questions and concerns. We also want to know what’s happening in your workplace. Is there technology in the workplace that worries you? Do certain policies change the way work is done? What is the future of work at your employer? Tell us about it and we’ll do our best to dig into your biggest issues.
Now, back to privacy in your workplace. We spoke to several privacy experts to understand how workers should think about their digital workplace communications and the services they use. Here’s what they had to say.
Q: Can my employer see my private messages at work?
A: Privacy experts agree that there are two things workers should think about when texting a colleague. First, is the service you are using provided by your employer? Second, are you having the conversation on a device provided by your employer?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, be aware that there is a chance that your employer may see or receive your messages. Additionally, even if you are using your device and your personal account on a digital service, your messages may still be at risk if you have software installed at work.
“The reality of what’s going on is changing very quickly,” said Alan Butler, executive director and president of the research organization Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Hardware, software and different things are being used … and the responsibility falls on the individual [to understand it all].”
The rule of thumb is to assume that if your workplace provides you with a tool or device, they can and will see what you do on it, Butler said. In some cases, this may mean using administrative privileges to read direct messages or private channels in the company’s Slack workspace. It could mean receiving emails, messages in Microsoft Teams, or texts on your company-provided mobile devices. Or, it could mean footage of a person’s messages on other services like Facebook, Twitter or Apple’s iMessage that come from the company’s monitoring software.
The issue could be particularly important if workers are using messaging apps to unionize against unfair working conditions or policies, said Cynthia Khoo, senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Law Center on Privacy and Technology.
“There is a standard level of monitoring that has been increasing,” she said. “But there is an additional level of monitoring aimed at suppressing labor organizing and activism.”
Even if employers can’t get messages on your device, they may be able to get metadata that will help them determine which employees may have been part of the same conversation, said Daniel Kahn Gillmor, technologist senior staff member at the American Civil Liberties Union. The Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. They may also ask you to provide your private messages from your private device related to a workplace conversation in an internal investigation, said Edgar Ndjatou, executive director of the nonprofit Workplace Fairness.
“You can decide if you want to honor [the request]but you could potentially be fired for not complying with it,” he said. “It’s fair game.”
First, if you want to have a private conversation with a colleague, it’s better to do it on your device using your services, experts note. Also, look for services that offer end-to-end encryption versus plain encrypted messages, Khoo said. End-to-end encryption means that your message will be encrypted from the moment it leaves your device until it reaches the receiving device. Anything less than that means it could be decoded somewhere in the stream.
She also suggests looking for services that offer ephemeral messaging so that the messages disappear within a certain amount of time. Some experts agree that one of the gold standard services for private messaging is Signal. WhatsApp is also a popular alternative, although Khoo points out that users should be aware that it is owned by Facebook–parent Meta, which is widely known for mass data collection.
Gillmor says to think of your digital conversations as in-person conversations, where the location of where those discussions take place matters.
“You wouldn’t go and have a chat outside your boss’s door,” he said. “You’d find a more discreet way to do it—perhaps when you’re out drinking or near heavy machinery on a factory floor.”
It may be best to determine what service employees will use together in person before moving online, experts say. Thus there is no consensus data.
But even with the best software, “nothing is foolproof,” EPIC’s Butler said. While Signal allows users to turn off screenshots of their conversations, the recipient of the message could always use a second mobile phone to take a picture of a message on the phone where the message was received, he added. And your privacy also depends on the person you’re talking to, as they can ultimately deliver any private message regardless of service or device, Gillmor said.
That said, sometimes workers need to hold truth to power, and that may have to happen in company channels. “It would be a shame if everyone just drew the line,” he said.
And some conversations are protected by law. So if someone is talking to co-workers about poor workplace conditions and prompting them to respond or act collectively, employers will be breaking labor laws if they retaliate against that, Ndjatou said.
Ndjatou says in general the best advice for workplace messaging, regardless of their level of privacy, is to know your audience and use common sense. Anything you say can always be used against you, and if a conversation is particularly sensitive, it may be best to fall back on the old-fashioned way of communicating.
“If possible, just meet in person and not digitally at all,” Khoo said.
