77). Electronic privacy law applies to employment and business records and information management in the workplace, with different rights and regulations depending on the specific communications medium involved. Generally, employee privacy rights to e-mail systems and telephone message recording and retrieval systems are determined by the employment contract or by the employment policies of the employer and are not subject to legal disputes initiated by employees ((Halbert & Ingulli p.78-80). The only exception giving employees privacy rights to communications is that (live) telephone conversations may not be intercepted or recorded without the permission of at least one person participating in the conversation by federal law. However, state law determines whether employers may record conversations in which they participate.

Approximately half the states allow any person in a conversation to record a telephone call without the knowledge or consent of the other person on the line; the other half require the consent of all parties to the conversation. Unlawful interception of protected communications is a federal criminal offense and may also expose the violator to civil penalties for invasion of privacy as well. The important distinction between live oral conversations and recorded communications applies at work because employees are not considered to have any such privacy rights in message retreival systems or e-mail systems provided by the employer (Halbert & Ingulli p.81). In ordinary (private) life, interception of recorded messages and e-mail transmissions or stored computer information is a federal criminal offense.

The 1996 case Smyth v. Pillsbury illustrates the general rule that employees do not have any resaonable expectation of privacy in their e-mail communications (Halbert & Ingulli p.78-9). In that case, the plaintiff was fired for personal...

Public employees at the municipal, state, and federal level have even fewer privacy rights, because their communications are potentially available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of 1966, which also requires public employers to comply with strict rules of preserving business records and communications.
Ethically, many people do object to the right of employers to review what employees consider to be private communications, but the fact is that employers have both a legal right as well as justification in knowing how their employees spend their time at work and how they use the employer's equipment. In fact, most businesses do monitor employee communications (Halbert & Ingulli p.82). To the extent allowed by law and many include a specific notice warning employees of this in their employment contracts, as well as in their policies and procedures manuals, and very often, on computer sign-on screens. Employers are not legally required to provide such notices, but many choose to do so to discourage lawsuits which may result in legal costs even where the employee is unsuccessful. In general, the privacy rights of employees are limited to personal changing areas and to their personal belongings and cellular phones.