Employee Privacy balanced against the Employer's property rights and security fears. The issue of encroachment on employee privacy has been a growing concern and an area of increased litigation. Employers have long felt the need to monitor their employees' work. In the past this meant observing them, looking at their sales record, tracing client satisfaction or examining their final work product. Today, with the increasing emphasis on the use of technology, employer monitoring is not as cut and dry as it used to be.
Employers feel that they have a responsibility and duty to monitor the workplace.
Employees argue that they believe their e-mail should be private and that even employers should not be able to intercept and read these messages. Employers, on the other hand, argue that the need to monitor employee e-mail communications is imperative in order to investigate employees work related activities and prevent theft, insider trading or other illegal conduct, as well as to measure productivity, efficiency and quality control. Advocates of employers having access to employee e-mail have also argued that activities which take place during the workday on company premises belong to the company, for which they have a right to access and inspect. In other words, they argue that employers have a property right to the work of their employees. Employers have used this thinking in validating their inspecting of the e-mail accounts of former employees who went to work for competitors.