Email is fast becoming as common in the workplace as the telephone, and as with the phone, many employees use email for personal matters. Email, however, is not a private, personal form of communication, and it is not against the law for employers to monitor their workers' email without telling them.

"It's a very significant issue for an employer in terms of their own liability because of employee conduct on the Internet and email systems," Kris Munro Kamali, an attorney with GrayCray in Palo Alto, California, explained to "CyberCrime" senior segment producer Jennifer London. "The employer owns that email system. They are responsible for that document. It's as if they distributed it. And because of that liability, they have to exert a certain level of control over it, and they have to take responsibility when it gets out of control."

For many employers, exerting control comes in the form of email monitoring. An April 2000 survey, conducted by the American Management Association, found that 78 percent of large US businesses monitor their employees' communications. Many other companies say they do not routinely monitor email, but will investigate employee email use when responding to internal complaints.

In October, 18 employees at a General Electric Plant in France were disciplined for emailing each other porn. Last year, "The New York Times" fired more than 20 employees at its Virginia office for misusing the company's email system. Meanwhile, in July, Dow Chemical fired 50 people from its headquarters in Midland, Michigan for sending pornographic and violent emails, while another 24 people were fired in September from Dow's plant in Freeport, Texas.

Brian Roper lost his job with Dow Chemical's Midland, Michigan plant after the company claimed he sent pornographic and offensive emails. Roper contends he did not send the email for which he was fired, but he does admit jokes were emailed around the plant.

"It was all just fun and games," Roper explained. "It wasn't sent to anyone that I know of that disapproved of it. It didn't offend me, whether I liked it or not. I'd just look at it, delete it, and go on with my job."

Roper also says that he was unaware that Dow had an email policy prohibiting these types of emails from circulating and that he was under the impression the email he sent was private. Many employees may be under a similarly mistaken impression.

"The reasons why a lot of employees might have the misperception of greater privacy in their email is because of this informality that goes on in the language and distribution and the use of email generally," Kamali said. "People don't simply think of it as a company record or memo."

Yet an email sent from work is exactly that. Kamali says sending an email from a company computer is no different than sending that same message on company letterhead, and employers have the right to read it.

Lawmakers are now beginning to look into whether or not that should be the case.