With the rise of technology there arose a fear of surveillance. However,George Orwell's 1984 passed us by without noticeable big brothercontrol, and the national concern over espionage diminished with thedemise of the U.S.S.R.These past threats were concerns over the use of technology bygovernments that had sufficient resources to use the technology forsinister purposes. The new threat is not technology in the hands ofgovernment, it is technology alone. What once required massive manpower,now requires merely a personal computer. Technology has made the powerto monitor others widely available, whether to governments, privateenterprise or individuals. This article discusses some of the lawsapplicable to the monitoring of employees in the private workplace.An employee, by the very nature of the employment relationship, must besubject to some level of monitoring by the employer. However, thismonitoring has limits. Courts have held that it is a tortuous invasionof privacy for an employer to monitor employee telephone conversions.Similarly, mail carried through the U.S. postal service is granted ahigh level of protection.However, much employee communication now takes place over private andpublic networks via e-mail, or voice mail. These forms of communicationare very different from telephone calls and letters. For example, aftertransmission and receipt, these communications are stored for anindefinite period of time on equipment under the exclusive control ofthe employer. Additionally, these communications can be examined withoutthe knowledge of the communicators. As is often the case, the law hasdifficulty keeping pace with the issues raised by fast changingtechnology.Electronic Communications Privacy Act -In the federal sphere, only the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of1986 (ECPA) directly prohibits the interception of e-mail transmissions.The ECPA prohibits the interception by (1) unauthorized individuals or(2) individuals working...
