For the below preceding case, create an argument on behalf of the employee.

Invading Your Privacy Can your employer invades your privacy through monitoring technologies? Numerous lawsuits have been filed by employees who believed their employer was wrong to invade their privacy with monitoring technologies. Below are a few cases highlighting lawsuits over employee privacy and employer rights to monitor?

McLaren versus Microsoft Corporation the Texas Court of Appeals in 1999 dismissed an employee’s claim that his employer’s review and dissemination of email stored in the employee’s workplace personal computer constituted an invasion of privacy. The employee argued that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy because the email was kept in a personal computer folder protected by a password. The court found this argument unconvincing because the email was transmitted over his employer’s network. However, according to a news account of one case, a court held that an employer’s use of a supervisor’s password to review an employee’s email may have violated a Massachusetts state statute against interference with privacy. In that case, Burk Technology allowed employees to use the company’s email system to send personal messages, but prohibited “excessive chatting.” To use the email system, each employee used a password. The employer never informed employees that their messages would or could be monitored by supervisors or the company president. The president of the company reviewed the emails of two employees who had referred to him by various nicknames and discussed his extramarital affair. The two employees were fired by the company president, who claimed the terminations were for their excessive email use and not because of the messages’ content. The court denied the company’s attempt to dismiss the suit and allowed the matter to be set for trial on the merits. The court focused on the fact that the employees were never informed that their email could be monitored. This case illustrates the importance of informing employees that their use of company equipment to send email and to surf the Internet is subject to monitoring to prevent subsequent confusion, and a possible future defense, on the part of employees.