(WIRED magazine issued the following news release on September 8.)
NEW YORK — IBM Corporation is ranked best for employee workplace privacy and Eli Lilly & Co. the worst among the largest publicly traded companies, according to research conducted by WIRED magazine. “Ranking Privacy at Work” (page 28) in the October 2003 issue reports that with tools like e-mail and Internet monitoring, keystroke tracking and even genetic testing, on-the-job spying has never been more common or effective. (The issue goes on sale September 9.)
According to WIRED’s findings, IBM set the standard in employee privacy in the ’60s with the first formal policy. Still the vanguard, IBM now compels its health care partners to eliminate Social Security numbers as patient identifiers.
Drug maker Eli Lilly, the magazine reports, “freaked after 9/11” and started doing background checks on its contract workers, dismissing some for old misdemeanor convictions. A company spokesperson told WIRED that checks on full-time employees are “even more stringent.”
The five best companies are IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, Baxter Healthcare and Sears. The five worst are Eli Lilly, Wal-Mart, New York Times Company, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Hilton Hotels.
Senior Editor Mark Robinson explains that to prepare the rankings, the magazine’s researchers contacted a dozen watchdog organizations and groups that work with industry like the Privacy Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, Work Rights Institute and Privacy & American Business. Compiling data from these groups on the best and worst practices, WIRED researchers looked at reports and lawsuits filed and then contacted each company to fill in the blanks.