Privacy laws pertaining to telephones, voicemail, email and Internet use.
Advances in technology now make it possible for employers to keep track of virtually all workplace communications by any employee -- on the phone and in cyberspace. And many employers take advantage of these tracking devices: A recent survey of more than 700 companies by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that almost three quarters of those companies monitor their workers' use of the Internet and check employee email. According to a study by the American Management Association, businesses offering financial services -- such as banks, brokerage houses, insurance firms and real estate companies -- are most likely to monitor their workers' communications.
Whether all this monitoring is legal depends on what type of communication the employer is trying to eavesdrop on, how reasonable it is for the employee to expect the communication to be private and the employer's reason for listening in.
Phone Calls
Employers may monitor business phone calls -- that is, employee conversations with clients or customers -- for quality control. Some states have laws that require employers to inform the parties to the call, either by announcement or by signal (such as a beeping noise during the call), that someone is listening in. Federal law, however, allows employers to monitor these business calls unannounced.
An exception is made for personal calls. Under federal law, once an employer knows that a call is personal, the employer must immediately stop monitoring the call.
Voicemail Messages
The law hasn't given a firm answer to whether employers may listen to employee voicemail. Most likely, employers have the right to listen to employee voicemail messages -- especially if the employer has a work-related reason.
If your employer has ever led you to believe that voicemails are private, however, then you might have a legitimate complaint if the employer listens to your voicemail.
Email Messages
Employers are generally free to rummage through employees' email messages -- as long as they have a valid business purpose for doing so. If the company takes steps to protect the privacy of email (by providing a system that allows messages to be designated "confidential" or creating private passwords known only to the employee, for example) -- or if a company states in its policies that email is private -- a worker might have a stronger expectation of privacy in the messages covered by these rules and therefore stronger legal protection if the employer reads private emails. But most courts to consider the issue have decided in favor of employers, particularly if the company has a policy that restricts computer use to official business only.
Legality aside, the truth is that many employers now routinely monitor email their employees send and receive. Some email systems copy all messages that pass through them; others create backup copies of new messages as they arrive. Workers who logically assume their messages are gone for good when they delete them are very often wrong. Treat your email system at work as you should your business phone. Strictly limit your communications with family and friends. And do not send a message if you would be uncomfortable having a co-worker or your employer read it.
Internet Use
Employers are within their legal rights to keep track of the Internet sites visited by their workers. Some employers install devices that block access to certain sites (for example, those with pornographic images) or limit the time workers may spend on sites that are not specified as work related.
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