According to a 2007 Statistics Canada study entitled “Time spent with family during a typical work day, 1986 – 2005”, workers in Canada spent an average of 45 minutes longer at work in 2005 than they did twenty years earlier.
During the same period, there was an exponential increase in the amount of time that employees spent in front of a computer screen at work. Many employers also expect employees to be available 24/7 via personal assistive devices (Blackberrys, iPhones, etc.).
It’s clear that people are spending more time, both at work and in non-working hours, on employer-owned electronic devices. One question arising out of this is “is an employer entitled to know what an employee does on an employer-owned electronic device?”. Perhaps more importantly, “can an employer control what an employee does on it?”
From a purely statutory perspective, pursuant to the Personal Information and Protection of Electronic Documents Act, a provincially-regulated employee in the province of Ontario has no right to privacy in the workplace. As a result, an employer can review whatever an employee does on a work computer. However, in today’s society, many employees believe they have a right to privacy in the workplace, including on their electronic devices.