" I'm ultimately responsible for my employees' actions!"

Since the actions of employees often become a company's responsibility in a legal case, many employers believe they should be able to monitor their employees for any signs of wrongdoing. Under current law, the owner of an email system is responsible for all the email that is sent on the system, whether it is business-related or personal (10). By being able to monitor this email, employees feel that they can protect themselves from legal actions resulting from any messages that can be considered illegal in there own right, such as death threats, or messages indicative of illegal activity, such as email indicating drug use or sexual harassment.

The identification of potentially criminal employees gives an employer the ability to stop illegal activity before the entire business is involved in a law suit. According to Stephen Miller, author of Civilizing Cyberspace, "the increasing number of negligent hiring lawsuits against companies whose employees misbehave gives business a powerful motivation to make sure they're not hiring a child molester, convicted felon, or other person whose later misconduct (should it occur) can result in a finding of corporate liability. (10)"

Industrial espionage and transfer of trade secrets to competing companies also can be greatly curtailed through use of electronic monitoring. Says Miller, "Although most employers understand that treating all employees like potential criminals does not build the trust and cooperation needed to run a modern business team, many feel they have no other choice in order to keep up with their competitors. (10)"

Electronic monitoring also facilitates an objective basis for promotion. Companies who promote employees by quantitative measurements of performance cannot be sued for bias in promotions (13).