Legal and Ethical Issues Surrounding
Internet and E-Mail Usage in the Work Place
One of the great myths of the electronic age of digital communication is that the use of E-mail and the Internet in the workplace is private. On the contrary, a survey by the American Management Association showed that 63 percent of mid-sized and large companies admitted that they used electronic surveillance on their employees. The survey showed that almost 25 percent of these companies do not let their employees know that they are being monitored.
In a noted legal journal, Kopp (1998) acknowledged that 90 percent of large companies, 64 percent of median-sized companies, and 42 percent of small companies use one or more E-mail systems in their daily operations. There is no indication in the last two years to suggest that those percentages are declining. As a matter of fact, International Date Corporation (IDC) on Oct. 12, 2000, predicted that by 2005, 36 billion E-mails will be sent every day (NUA Net Surveys, 2001).
IDC's E-mail Usage Forecast and Analysis report further estimates that the number of E-mails sent annually in Western Europe will be 1.6 trillion in 2005, up from 511 billion in 2000. "In order to plan solutions for dealing with this amount of E-mails, Internet professionals need to understand how E-mail use will evolve over time. The report also predicts that web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape will become more popular than standalone applications for sending and receiving E-mails" (NUA Net Surveys, 2001).
If those figures are met, then the need for logical and rational policies for workplace use of the Internet and E-mail is growing. This paper will discuss the situation from two points of view: the employer, and the employee.
First, the personal use of the Internet and E-mail that has been installed and designed for a corporate use is expensive. Assume 40 million Americans in the work place have ac...