Dr. Anthony Fauci's personal, pandemic-era diary entries—kept on government servers during his time as a federal official—became part of the public record after being turned over during a congressional inquiry. The underlying takeaway applies to nearly everyone with a job: what you write, say or search on a work-issued device shouldn’t have the expectation of privacy or belonging to you. As one employment attorney put it in a recent article in Fast Company, "You have no privacy when it comes to using work technology." The article goes on to discuss how personal information on company computers like this diary can reveal information you may want to keep private, for our community things like  a cancer diagnosis or information about your treatment that you do not want people to know about. 

For most of us, that's an uncomfortable thing to sit with. We spend hours a day on our work laptops and phones, and it's easy to forget that the device technically belongs to your employer, not you. Many organizations can—and do—monitor what happens on company-owned equipment. That can include reading messages sent through Slack or Microsoft Teams, reviewing email, tracking search and browser history, logging keystrokes and, in some cases, even taking periodic screenshots of your screen. And with all the new AI tools this can include meeting notes and transcripts—which may not leave out the time you spent catching up with a close colleague talking about your personal lives. Monitoring policies are often buried in the employee handbook few of us read closely. The safest assumption is simple: if it's on a company system, someone else may eventually see it.

This is especially worth thinking about if you're navigating a cancer diagnosis while working. Whether or not—and how much—to disclose your diagnosis to your employer is a deeply personal decision, and there's no single "right" way to handle. But part of that decision-making should include being mindful of *where* you're having those conversations and storing that information.

This doesn't mean you need to be paranoid or avoid ever discussing your health at work. It simply means being intentional: decide who you want to tell, how much detail you're comfortable sharing, and which channels you're using to share it. Keeping personal and professional communications on separate devices when possible.

A few other tips:

• Review your employee handbook or IT policy to understand what your company is permitted to monitor.
• Keep sensitive health conversations, appointments, and personal notes off company email, messaging platforms and devices when you can.
• If you work remotely, remember that monitoring software and expectations don't disappear just because you're not in the office.

For more guidance on protecting your privacy—at work, while job searching or working remotely—join us on October 7th for our webinar on Navigating the Virtual Landscape. Or check out our resources on disclosure and sharing the news, safeguarding your privacy and privacy while working remotely.