Legal Question in Employment Law in Georgia
Colleague Used Personal Information to Change Phone Account
An employee at the company where I work was put in charge of monitoring cell phone accounts for some reason. Most employees have ''house'' accounts, meaning that my company receives and pays the bills directly. However, I have an account in my name that is not under the company umbrella, although my company does pay the bill indirectly. From what I can tell the phone-bill-reviewer obtained my social security number (he is in the IT department, so I am not sure if HR is complicit) and used it to gain control of my cell phone account, rerouting billing to the company office rather than my home and placing a password on the account so that I had no access to my account information. What do I do? I can't trust this person with my personal information anymore, I have no idea what additional information he has or could gain access to, and therfore I don't feel that I can work for this company if the person continues to be employed there. I also don't know what obligation my company has to protect my information, share it with other officers of the company, and/or use it to gather additional information about me. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Colleague Used Personal Information to Change Phone Account
You really do not provide sufficient information for the primary question - who was the cell phone account-holder? You said you had an account "in your name?" Does that mean that it is your personal cell phone that you own, and the account is one that you obtained completely on your own, with no company involvement whatsoever? Or, is it in your name, but it was set up through the company plan/carrier/account? Or something else? Either way, you should discuss it with the appropriate superiors, and it if it completely your personal phone and account, request that it be remedied immediately. If it is a company phone, just get your own personal phone. Ask them how your personal info is used within the company. Beyond that, the matter is one that should first be taken up with management prior to speculating about legal issues. Who you trust, who you want fired, or whether you may want to quit are not legal issues that can be addressed here.