Paper Summary:

The author of the paper examines the growing trend of email monitoring by employers of employees' electronic mail and the attitude of the courts in the United States to this phenomena. The writer looks at a number of court cases where employees challenged the right of their employer to monitor their email and other electronic communications basing their claims on the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The writer then discusses the rulings of the courts and how they impact on the rights of privacy of the individual in his workplace.

From the Paper:

"It is clear that the current environment of the workplace is demonstrative of the statement "employee be wary." Utilizing your work email for private communications should be a very limited practice and the type of information you divulge in such email transmissions should also be limited. The employee should basically assume, regardless of the documentation or disclosure of an email monitoring policy, that they have no legal right to privacy with regard to email. The laws may change in the future, as more cases reach the courts that require the employer, more explicitly to make employees aware that they are being monitored but that is likely to be the only form of legal protection by the court, and it must also be noted that the courts have given the employer the benefit of the doubt even when the employee claims ignorance regarding email monitoring policies. (Rich NP) Some individuals have attacked firings, on the grounds of illicit use of a company computer as those that could be publicly destructive to their character, i.e. as torts, yet the success has been limited, as basically the court supposes that if you participate in something that is illegitimate then the fault lies with this action, rather than with the action of the employer in his or her attempt to limit such activity in their workplace. (Clochetti NP)"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Clochetti, Cory A. Monotoring Employee E-Mail: Efficient Workplaces vs. Employee Privacy. Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 0026 <http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2001dltr0026.html>.
• Froomkin, A. Michael. "The Death of Privacy?." Stanford Law Review 52.5 (2000): 1461.
• Rich, Lloyd L. Right to Privacy in the Workplace in the Information Age All Good Layers Legal Resource Directory October, 31, 2007 <http://www.allgoodlawyers.com/guestbookview.asp?key=97>

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