Monitoring E-mail of Employees in the Private Sector: A Comparison Between Western Europe and the United States

Both Western Europe and the United States limit e-mail monitoring by an employer in the workplace and protect employee privacy. Nevertheless, cases from both Western Europe and the United States show that these regions allow an employer broad rights to monitor employee e-mail. A new case from France, however, demonstrates that Western Europe is increasingly likely to protect employee privacy in the workplace by limiting e-mail monitoring by private-sector employers. Conversely, little is expected to change in the United States, despite recent corporate scandals, because the role of government and the value placed on the right to privacy diverges in the United States from that of Western Europe.