The large amount of highly personal data available to employers provides an opportunity to better understand employee behavior. These safety and health data can help uncover ways to support employees’ well-being.
However, they also present ethical concerns and challenges about employees’ privacy. Employers must maintain the security of data. If the data were released, it could be damaging to employees, job applicants, or customers.
One recent example was the data breach at Uber, in which the private accounts of 57 million drivers and customers were stolen, and the company paid the hackers $100,000 to delete the data. (Uber also covered up the breach for several months, leading to the firing of its chief security officer and harming its reputation.)
Some security issues can be addressed by technological solutions like ensuring that the data cannot be hacked by outsiders. But other security issues are the result of human error. A single employee might mistakenly give out their login credentials in a phishing attack and make the entire database of all employees and customers visible.
The ethical issue of maintaining the security of private data is one that will continue to evolve with technological advances. But an organization is ethically responsible for maintaining the safety and security of its employees’ and clients’ personal information.

Questions 

1. People working in HR have access to private information about employees. What kind of training content should an employer provide for its HR employees so that they would know their ethical responsibilities for maintaining these private data?
2. Describe some everyday situations in which an employee in HR or another area could accidentally compromise employees’ private data.
How can workers prevent or contain the damage if this were to happen?