Constitutional Right on Business Paper

Article Review: Constitutional Right on Business Paper

The Fourth Amendment provides “the right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures…” When this amendment was written it addressed privacy concerns at that time in history. Today, however, there is a myriad of privacy concerns brought about by modern technology that could not have been foreseen. The question then becomes whether this law that protects privacy has evolved with the times in order to ensure the effectiveness of the original Fourth Amendment. The subject of workplace electronic mail (e-mail) and employee privacy is a current issue. Do employees have the right to privacy when sending e-mail from the workplace on company-owned computers? The purpose of this paper is to analyze the article “Company E-mail and Internet Policies” written by Barbara Weil Gall, which discusses the topic of Internet policies and employee privacy.

Article Synopsis

This was a well-written and very informative article on the subject of company e-mail and employee privacy. Barbara Weil Gall does a good job of presenting the issue from both sides. It is mentioned that from the employee standpoint, monitoring employee’s e-mail and Internet use “smacks of Big Brother”, although monitoring employees in general is not a new concept. Today, employers can monitor Internet access and e-mail use by using software designed for this purpose. There are also ways of retrieving “deleted” information from the hard drive, as well as programs that monitor keystrokes or capture images on the computer monitor. Ms. Weil Gall goes on to explain that further from the employee standpoint, access to e-mail is seen as a perk. Employees usually “come to regard their email as private, even if it is over a company-owned system.

From an employer standpoint she explains that computers are not only company property, but if e-mail and Internet access is provided, it is usually...