Protea Technology Ltd. Vs Wainer Case Study

Conducting business in the modern era has changed drastically due to the increasing use of information technology such as the World Wide Web. Employees are using emails, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles to connect faster with others and to sell their ideas and those of the company to which they are employed. The problem arises when employees feel that their right to freedom of speech permits for uncensored misuse of social networks which may harm their fellow employees or the reputation of the company they are employed by. There are different points of views between employers and employees with regard to their opinion and value on privacy regulations. As in the case of Protea Technology Ltd. Vs Wainer it can be seen that employees are
Although this is not verbally communicated to the employees, it can be seen as a lack of trust or respect towards the employees. It can have negative implications in regard to their performance or productivity as they do not feel to be working in a safe or comfortable environment. One of the rights with regard to privacy of an individual is mentioned in the Constitution of South African Bill of Rights under section 14 para. d) as “Everyone has the right to privacy, which includes the right not to have the privacy of their communication infringed”. The right to privacy is based on human dignity and is inherently linked to other rights such as the right to equality and freedom of expression. The theory of deontological ethics by Immanuel Kant sets an objective standard against which all actions can be measured. He then went on to say that if an action amounts to abusing other persons in order to reach your own objective then the action is wrong. Thus, invading the privacy of current or future employees to protect the reputation of the company and future negligent hiring claims can be seen as unethical or morally incorrect (Kretzchmar et al.,
In keeping the interests of the company in mind, one needs to comply with the IT governance requirements as outlined in the King Report on Governance for South Africa (Institute of Directors In Southern Africa,2009). It puts emphasis on the importance of information and procedures used to safeguard information that is of strategic significance (Heyink,2011). The party deemed as operator has a task of processing information through mandate issued by the responsible party. The responsible party stated above is the party that acquires clients’ information directly from the client. Both operators and responsible parties are accountable for the safeguard of information. Companies want to avoid lawsuits which could arise from a leak by the operator. This would be a breach of contract between said operator and the responsible