Discuss the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and its implications for e-mail privacy

What will be an ideal response?

In 1986, Congress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which offered far stronger support for voice mail than it did for e-mail communications. This act made it much more difficult for anyone (including the government) to eavesdrop on phone conversations. E-mail privacy is, therefore, much harder to protect. In addition, no other laws at the federal or state levels protect e-mail privacy.

The ECPA and the court case judgments thus far on e-mail monitoring suggest that companies must be prudent and open about their monitoring of e-mail messages and Internet usage. Companies should use good judgment in monitoring e-mail and should make public their policy about monitoring messages. One primary reason that employees perceive their e-mail to be private is the fact that they are never told otherwise. In addition, employees should use e-mail only as appropriate, based on their company's policy and their own ethical standards.