E-mail has rapidly become a staple of the modern office. Currently, two-thirds of employees in medium and large companies in the United States now have Internet access, compared with fifteen percent only two years ago. The availability of e-mail allows for messages to be widely and rapidly distributed, improving efficiency and reducing cost. In addition to being one of the components of the new workplace, e-mail is also the center of a hot privacy debate. Part of this is because, unlike regular mail, which is difficult to monitor, e-mail can be scanned with ease, allowing employers to engage in monitoring at an unprecedented rate, and raising the specter of a workplace free of privacy.
Employers have a strong interest in monitoring the communications of their employees.
Employees engaging in illegal acts, distributing proprietary information or sending sexually explicit or harassing e-mails are a serious threat and liability to the employer 2 . For example, an employer can be held financially responsible for an employee's sexual harassment, as was the case in Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellert. In this case, Burlington was held liable for damages incurred by an employee, even though no complaint had been filed regarding the harassment. The court ruled that regardless of a complaint, an employer had a duty to investigate if there was a perceived culture of harassment. Obviously, in order to prevent lawsuits like this one, an employer should have the right to monitor office communications.