Internet use has fundamentally transformed traditional employee protection in the workplace. The internet has blurred the boundaries between an employee’s personal and work lives. The increased autonomy and flexibility enjoyed by employees both at work and at home is due to the internet information systems and tools supplied by employers. However, these same systems and tools have resulted in the potential invasion of a worker’s privacy by employers.

Employers increasingly are using the internet to monitor worker activity and communications. This monitoring is helpful to improve an entity’s effectiveness and to ameliorate the harm of rogue employee activities. Worker advocates contend, however, that such monitoring practices erode workers’ privacy rights.