And many employers haven't shied away from exercising their right to examine workers' e-mail. Recently, large companies have also employed new software, like Assentor or Spyglass Surfwatch, that allows them to screen large numbers of messages without actually reading them. The software detects certain key words that hint at behavior the company is seeking to control, then retrieves those messages for perusal. Aside from exercising what they consider to be their legal right, corporations rationalize eavesdropping on other grounds. Surveillance, they argue, is needed to insure that productivity is maintained, that trade secrets are kept, that crimes are not committed on their premises, and that employees do not use E-mail to harass one another.
Employees do have some recouse if their corporations have granted certain privacy right.
But few companies have done so, and even then their workers must be willing to take their cases to court. Corporations, however, would be well advised to grant employees a measure of privacy. Companies are not merely places of employment, they are something of a community, too. In the 1980's corporations were so worried about competing that they paid little attention to things like communal feelings or their employees' commitment to the workplace. Popular fears about privacy violations, real or imagined, offer a particularly inviting opportunity for corporations to show support for workplace community.