DON'T EXPECT PRIVACY IN THE WORKPLACE

American law provides considerable protection to privacy in the home.
But the same is far from true of the workplace.

More than 40 percent of U.S. corporations engage in some intrusive
employee monitoring, according to a survey by the American Management
Association. This can include checking of e-mail, voice mail and
telephone conversations, recording of computer keystrokes, and video
recording of job performance, reports Scientific American. Fifteen
percent of corporations conduct psychological testing of employees,
while 1 percent do genetic testing.

At the same time, many employers are not as closed-fisted about theit
uses of the information they glean as privacy advocates would like.

One quarter of Fortune 500 companies surveyed by two University of
lllinois researchers released confidential employee information to
government agencies without a subpoena; 70 percent gave the
information to credit grantors. Yet, three-fourths of companies would
not allow employees to see supervisors' evaluations of their own
performance.

Courts have generally backed such practices, saying cornpanies have
legitimate concerns with preventing theft, raising productivity and
preventing corporate spying. Only a few states have banned random drug
testing, genetic.tests and video surveillance in lockers and
bathrooms. Yet no state offers strong protection to workers using
e-mail or the telephone, and none bans intrusive psychological
testing. Proposed federal legislation to give workers greater privacy
protections was shelved in 1994.