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Those of us who have embraced the electronic age have a tendency to wax lyrical about the ease with which we can communicate with one another at the touch of a button. Email in particular has made it possible to exchange vast amounts of information easily and cheaply, for business or pleasure. But the electronic age has also brought with it the potential for more and more snooping by employers on the activities of their employees.

Are there laws to protect employee privacy?
The Human Rights Act came into force in England on 2 October 2000. The act specifically refers to the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence. So in theory it should mean greater protection for the employee who wants to indulge in the odd exchange of correspondence with their mother or boyfriend.

That's alright then, isn't it?
Not really. The government recently announced new powers for employers to monitor the emails sent and received by their employees. According to Patricia Hewitt, minister for small business and e-commerce, these draft regulations "need to strike the right balance between protecting the privacy of individuals and enabling industry and business to get the maximum benefit from new communications technology". There have been a few recent cases in which employees have been dismissed for excessive use of the internet, or for downloading or transmitting "unsuitable" material. While most employers won't mind the odd message, they will mind if their employees spend hours surfing the net when they should be doing the job they are employed to do.

What should an employer do in this case?
When this happens, employees should be disciplined under performance criteria, just as they would be if they were caught sneaking off the job for no good reason.

What should an employer watch out for?
Employers are responsible for their employees' use of the internet and are also legally responsible for the content of emails, which can form contractual documents. In one case, the defendant had to pay an out-of-court settlement of £450 000 to a competitor after its staff spread rumours through its internal email system that the competitor was in financial trouble. To reduce liability, employers have to be able to prove that they have a policy to prevent illegal actions.

In a few recent cases employees have been dismissed for excessive use of the internet

What should employers do to avoid these problems?
Although the law may be confusing, hopefully it will at least encourage employers to develop clear policies on internet and email use. Such policies should provide guidance on the following: looking for information on the internet, surfing the web, downloading information from the internet, communicating via email and working on the organisation's website.

If employees are banned from sending or receiving personal emails they should be told so in advance. They should also be aware if the employer is planning to check their mailboxes to enforce this policy.

At least one case has been successfully fought under the human rights legislation. In Halford vs UK (1997), Alison Halford won her case not because the law said it was alright for her to use her employer's telephone system for private use, but because the telephone in question was specifically provided for personal use. Therefore when the employer monitored her calls, this resulted in an infringement of her privacy.