Describe privacy concerns in the context of third-party ...

[segrsyd]

Describe privacy concerns in the context of third-party information request.

Question 2

Discuss the origin of Employee Privacy Rights.

[Christopher]

Answer to Question 1

Third-party information request arise primarily in the hiring stage. Relevant information is collected regarding the background of the applicant before actually hiring the applicant in the respective company. Information is collected from the former employer of the employee which is typically protected by a qualified privilege. Such communication between employers must be done in the absence of malice. Employers have opted to limit their responses to reference requests disclosing the dates of the former employee/applicant's, his/her salary, and job title because it usually is not safe to disclose and withhold much about the credentials of the employees. This could lead to tort liability in most circumstances by the former employers.

Answer to Question 2

The idea of employee privacy rights originated in America. Louis Brandeis and Samuel D.Warren, in 1890, published an article in the Harvard law review called The Right to Privacy. In this article they argued that the Constitutional and common law implied general right to privacy. In spite of their efforts, the article was never really accepted and, hence, it was not entirely successful. It took a few decades for this policy to take shape. It was the then renowned tort scholar Dean Prosser who postulated after a few decades that the privacy umbrella covered four separate torts, the only unifying element of which is the right to be left alone.
The four elements of common-law privacy are:
 Appropriating the plaintiff's identity for the defendant's benefit
 Placing the plaintiff in a false light in the public eye
 Publicly disclosing private facts about the plaintiff
 Unreasonably intruding upon the seclusion or solitude of the plaintiff