The abuse of a company's system is easily used for sexual harassment of employees by the transmission of off-color jokes and suggestive messages. Disgruntled employees can access sensitive company data and transmit it to others or destroy it. In addition to personal use of the electronic system of an employer, employees have been known to set up football pools, gambling systems, and other non-productive uses, generally leading to a waste of the employee's time and the employer's resources. Many are under the misimpression that deleted messages are obliterated and cannot be retrieved. Many businesses have found opposing counsel poring through deleted e-mail messages and attachments looking for evidence in cases brought by employees against employers as well as by competitors in civil matters.
Courts routinely admit such computer based records as evidence.
Among employees concerns are the employee's right to privacy, the employee's right to freedom of speech, as well as union activity on the employer's premises. Although these rights may limit to some extent the employer's right to monitor employees activities under the current state of the law, the employee's rights are not as powerful as many employees may believe. The law of employment at will continues to evolve and many commentators believe that the right of privacy of the employee will likewise evolve over the next few years to give employees more rights in the workplace. In order to protect themselves from unwanted employee practices, a slight majority of employers engage in one or more electronic monitoring or surveillance practices. Employees in the financial sector are more likely to be electronically monitored than those in manufacturing.