Is this snooping?

[StJoseph8]

part of my job requires that I make copies or fax documents for my customers. Now, is it snooping if I briefly scan the document that I’m copying or faxing? I thought that was a normal thing to do.

 

[joeybaggz]

part of my job requires that I make copies or fax documents for my customers. Now, is it snooping if I briefly scan the document that I’m copying or faxing? I thought that was a normal thing to do.

No, it’s your job. I would think you’d have to scan it if not only for the purpose of copying it correctly. Now if you were to copy it for yourself and use it for an illegal, immoral, or unethical purpose, that would be another matter.

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

part of my job requires that I make copies or fax documents for my customers. Now, is it snooping if I briefly scan the document that I’m copying or faxing? I thought that was a normal thing to do.

Depends on the rules of your company. If the rules say you are to copy and hand to the client for approval, then yes, you are doing wrong. I know that I went to Staples or Office Max or Office depo or one of those chain stores when the printer broke at my workplace and we needed color prints. The self-serve copier was down at the store—OF COURSE. I handed my original to the guy who worked there and then he handed me the first copy…asked me if it looked correct.

I was kinda dumfounded…it was a copy…of course it looked fine. He told me that they were not permitted to look over jobs unless a customer directly requested they do so. They had to copy and put it in an envelope with as little visual contact as possible per policy.

So…can you “look over” documents? That depends on where you work.

 

[exnihilo]

I guess it would make a difference on what you mean by scan. I think you’d have to observe the document size, borders and other things to make sure you can actually copy or fax the document. I would think in receiving documents you may need to ‘spot check’ to make sure the quality is sufficient. In doing all this you may perceive some of the content. What mattters most is that you treat the content as confidential.

 

[Jared2914]

If you mean scan as in digitize a paper copy for the purposes of making a copy, there is no sin. Every copier requires the document be scanned before it can be copied. If you mean that when you take the document, you sometimes out of curiosity read over it just to see who those people are, that would probably be a sin. Some jobs definitely require that – I’m thinking here, for example, of mortgage officers that use customer information to run credit checks – but if that isn’t part of the job, you don’t have any business looking at their private information. It can be hard to the right thing in this situation because as part of making a copy or faxing it, you might glance and see a word that grabs your attention. Then you want to see what else it says. Unless you are using the information for malicious purposes, it is probably only a venial sin. But again, if it’s part of your job to look at customer information, you are just doing your job and have no sin.