According to the current laws, which are not really up to speed yet, an employer can monitor employee email if he or she has a legitimate business purpose for doing so. There is a belief that, because the employer has an email and computer system for employee use, the computer system (as well as the resulting email and browsing history) is the property of the employer. While this makes sense, some states have enacted 'right to privacy' laws so that companies cannot make this claim against their employees and cannot monitor what they do on the Internet during company time. It then becomes difficult to balance the need to supervise and control employees with the need to make sure that those same employees' rights are not being violated by their employers. There is no clear legal rule as to what is acceptable and what is not in the field of...
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