At a subsidiary of Chevron Corp., offensive chain letters sent through e-mail were used as evidence in a successful sexual harassment suit in 1995. That has companies scared, Overly said. If it's in reasonable proximity to other words, it might not be so good. They can even scan non-text documents, like compressed Zip files, spreadsheets, and graphics, for offensive phrases. Privacy Peril Employees have few privacy rights in the office, Overly said.
Many companies ask employees to sign away their rights when they're hired.
But recently, employees have been fighting back with suits based on a 1986 privacy law. The result has been a confusing legal climate. The key, all sides said, is for companies to clearly inform their users about how much privacy to expect. And Hazleton said lovers and thieves who pay attention to their language will always be able to avoid content-surveillance software. Melanie Axelrod contributed to this story.