But some privacy advocates, labor organizations and lawyers consider those arguments still largely untested. A person's home life and work life are increasingly intermingled, they argue. Then it's no right at all. For now, the issues revolve around technology that enables employers to watch and record what flies over their networks. One new product, called Spector, surreptitiously takes digital snapshots of whatever appears on the screen, as often as every few seconds.
Most employers are less heavy-handed.
They say they won't routinely read e-mail messages. And they will typically look at Web traffic among a pool of computers without focusing on individual use. But if something looks suspicious, they say, they have a right to dig into an employee's electronic records. Employers' fear of sexual harassment lawsuits is one of the greatest forces driving the monitoring movement, according to companies that sell filtering and monitoring software. Many companies that track Web use say they also watch to make sure that employees are getting their work done.