The Contribution of Multimedia Technologies to the Sharing of Employee Personal Information in Public Institutions

Abstract

This study investigates how multimedia technologies enhance the creation, sharing, and exposure of employee personal information in public institutions. Widespread use of smartphones, social media platforms, cloud-based communication systems, and video-conferencing tools increasingly exposes sensitive employee personal information.  The study is conducted within the scope of Kisii County Government in Kisii County, Kenya, using a descriptive case study design. Data were collected from a total of 131 participants, comprising employees drawn from the Communication (30), Information Technology (40), and Human Resource Management (47) departments, as well as 14 chief officers selected through purposive sampling. The findings reveal that multimedia technologies accelerate the generation, storage, circulation, and public sharing of employee personal information. Employees frequently expose sensitive information unintentionally through social media sharing, misconfigured cloud access, and video conferencing errors. While these technologies enhance communication efficiency and organisational collaboration, they simultaneously reduce employee control over personal data, creating persistent privacy vulnerabilities within public institutions. The study concludes that employee privacy risks are shaped by both individual practices and institutional frameworks, and recommends strengthening digital privacy governance through comprehensive privacy policies, continuous privacy awareness training, secure cloud systems, automated privacy safeguards, and clear social media usage guidelines.