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The advent of information technology and its development has brought many advantages to

the hotel and tourism industry. These advantages are multifaceted they have helped to

improve efficiency and productivity not only from the employer -employee perspective but

also from the business ± customer perspective i.e. Hotel± Clients. However with many

advantages the use of IT technology brings it also raises certain challenges, and in this

essay¶s context it raises the pertinent issue of employee and guest privacy.

The Webster dictionary defines privacy as ³the quality of being secluded from the presence

or view of others´. 
 and 
  2009 state that Privacy is not a static object with a

discrete set of attributes and actions. It is neither directly observable nor measurable.

Privacy's protean nature is the source of its value and the source of its challenges. Privacy is,

fundamentally, contextual. Any question about privacy must be understood in the following

contexts: The starting assumptions and principles of the parties, the relationship between the

parties, and the interaction between the parties among which private information is shared the

domain (e.g., sector, nation, etc.) in which the parties are interacting the societal norms to

which the parties adhere.

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ver the past decade, there has been a technological revolution in the workplace as

businesses have increasingly turned to computer technology as the primary tool to

communicate, conduct research, and store information. As the use of computer technology

has increased, so has concern grown among private sector employers that their computer

resources may be abused by employees²either by accessing offensive material or

jeopardizing the security of proprietary information²and may provide an easy entry point

into a company¶s electronic systems by computer trespassers. As a result, companies have

developed ³computer conduct´ policies and implemented strategies to monitor their

employees¶ use of e-mail, the Internet, and computer files.

Private sector practice of monitoring their employees¶ electronic transactions has raised

questions about the appropriate balance between employees¶ privacy rights in the workplace

and companies¶ rights to protect themselves and their employees by monitoring their

employees¶ electronic transactions.  !

 
 "# , report

2002).

The modern employee may be watched via CCTV whilst working in the (open-plan) office,

her telephone calls recorded, her office conversation monitored by listening devices, her key

strokes logged, her computer screen monitored, her movements noted by sensors in her seat,

her whereabouts in the building pinpointed by location badge. She may also be obliged prior

to, or during, her employment to submit to urinalysis, personality testing and genetic

screening and monitoring. The former mechanisms may be seen to erode privacy in the

workplace; the latter to extend to additionally threaten the employee¶s privacy outside the

workplace.

The data collected has been in various cases abused both willingly by unscrupulous

employers. ther information has in-directly and unwittingly fallen on the wrong hands and

has been used to damage the employees reputation or even form the company¶s negative pre

disposition against the employee.

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