In a recent article in the New York Times discussed the "growing tension between communications companies and governments over how to balance privacy with national security." This tension is not limited to that context, however. Nearly every workplace that uses email faces a similar tension between open access and secure communications. And this debate splits people. An ongoing informal survey by The Economist suggests that the number of people who want more control and restrictions over communication are nearly equally balanced by those who chafe at such restrictions.
So, what’s the right answer? It would seem that continual balancing and re-balancing between too much/too little privacy and too much/too little security is the necessary (if not quick or easy) solution. In the workplace, that means not always siding with one faction or the other on these issues, but addressing issues pragmatically as they arise.