Privacy Rights in the Workplace: Constitutional and Statutory Considerations

Paul Kovatch

---

DOI: 10.2190/LFU4-JA3T-WBB6-F7G1

Abstract

The growth of surveillance in the workplace has increased at an alarming rate during the last decade. Various electronic and other surveillance techniques including the use of video cameras, e-mail monitoring, telephone recordings, and searches of employee computers and cubicles allow employers a seemingly unlimited ability to keep tabs on their employees. Such technological advances significantly affect the privacy rights of employees. This article examines how privacy rights at the workplace are treated constitutionally and statutorily. The author argues that employers growing abuse of this ability to monitor employees and violate their right to privacy requires an examination of current protections for employees and, possibly, new solutions.

---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.