Studies have shown that more than 75 percent of major U.S. corporations routinely record and review employee communications and activities in the workplace, including employee telephone calls, email usage, and computer files. In virtually all workplace cases, private employers have prevailed. Employees should use extreme discretion when using their emails, business phones, and corporate computers for any personal activities. As one commentator phrased it, never send an email from work that you would be afraid to "read the next day on the front page of a newspaper."The Councilman court refused to allow snooping outside the employer-employee relationship. In the absence of a court order, email providers may not intercept and read email, even though the Wiretap Act was vague as to its actual meaning. As is so often the case, legal analysis and legislation is far behind the latest advances in technology. Privacy experts hope that Councilman will be the first of many cases that cause the courts to realize that the Internet has forever changed our cherished right to privacy.
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