ates Constitution's Fourth amendment and similar state constitutions. Courts have upheld that the Fourth Amendment's protection against "unreasonable search and seizures" applies to workplace invasions of privacy. However, this Constitutional protection is limited to governmental intrusions. Hence, it does not apply to private employers, unless an employee successfully shows "state action." In Schowengerdt v. General Dynamics Corporation [823 F.2d 1328, 1332 n.3 (9th Cir. 1987).] Schowengerdt held that the employee had a reasonable expectation to privacy in work areas of exclusive use to the employee, such as the employee's office, unless the employer had previously notified the employee that the employee's office was subject to a work-related search on a regular basis. The court concluded that despite the employee's reasonable expectation to privacy in his office that a warrantless search of the office was permissible when it was work-related and reasonable under the circumstances. As the wording of the 4th amendment suggests. it does not protect against all searches, only unreasonable searches. Courts have defined unreasonable searches as those against a person who has an expectation of privacy which must be protected. This can be shown in United States v. Perkins. [383 F. Supp. 922, 927 (N.D. Ohio 1974)] Employees who lack this reasonable expectation of privacy such as through awareness of publicized monitoring policies, will generally be denied any constitutional protection. The policy, to be effective, should warn employees that e-mail messages may be audited despite certain system features that give the appearance of privacy, such as personal passwords and the employee's ability to delete messages.III.Current Law Pertaining to E-mail CommunicationThe technology revolution of the e-mail address enabled businesses and private individuals to communicate in ways never before imagined. As with anything, the easier it is, the...
