The tremendous issues of technology - disabled persons and technology

Training & Development, Nov, 2001 by Eva Kaplan-Leiserson

1. Create a privacy policy, and feature it prominently on your Website. Explain what information is collected, what it's used for, and who has access to it.

2. Secure personal data with encryption technology when it's transmitted, and notify users that you do.

3. Let learners pick their own IDs and passwords rather than assigning them.

4. Re: Cookies, use one-time, self-terminating ones.

5. Destroy learner data as soon as it's no longer needed. Archive data that you need to keep, either offline or behind firewalls.

Consumers and learners aren't the only people concerned with privacy on the Internet. According to various reports, as many as 78 percent or as few as 30 percent of companies monitor employees by reading their email, listening to their voicemail, or counting their keystrokes. Usually, the goal isn't to determine who's slacking off but to make sure workers aren't leaking trade secrets or engaging in improper behavior such as sexual harassment that the company could be sued for. Is monitoring employees legal? Yes, if workers are notified that they may be watched.

Many people are troubled by the idea that their moves may be monitored, and some are fighting back with specialized software. Programs such as SafeWeb * www.safeweb.com can encrypt or erase your browser history. This kind of tool is used not only by Web surfers who don't want companies capturing their info, but also by employees who don't want their Web use tracked at work.

Marco Beemsterboer, a consultant in The Netherlands, says that if bosses are allowed to monitor employees, then employees should be able to monitor bosses. In other words, Internet-access data and other tracking information should be open for everyone to view. After all, he says, when a boss makes mistakes, he or she puts workers' jobs at risk. Admitting that the idea is controversial, Beemsterboer claims, "It will create a more transparent and honest situation in the workplace ... which will in the end dramatically increase employee involvement and decrease existing paranoia between hierarchy levels."

Just because we can do something, should we? That's a moral question and a financial one. The love of technology has been shouted from the rooftops, but what is it really costing us, and do we really need it? Technology 2001 is about reevaluating. That doesn't have to mean shelving technology or halting its development, but it does mean taking a hard look at its purpose and usefulness, as well as at the issues it raises. The days of buying technology for technology's sake are over.

Reassessing our need for technology is especially important in the present economic downturn. In a recent CIO.com poll asking whether e-learning is underway at their companies, 83 percent of respondents said no. Though CIOs recognize the potential of e-learning, the infrastructure requirements and cost are proving to be obstacles in this economy.

In another example, Temple University recently shut down Virtual Temple, its for-profit distance education endeavor. In the Chronicle of Higher Education Online, University president David Adamany said the program wasn't economically viable. Temple will still offer distance education classes but will integrate them with its current offerings.