Keystroke Spies – Conflicting Privacy Rights

Originally published in the May 22, 2000 issue of the National Law Journal at page A23.

A new privacy battle is being waged over the use of computers in the workplace. New surveillance software is covertly being installed on corporate computers to invisibly capture and record employee keystrokes as they occur. The software allows electronic data from keystrokes to be recorded even if an employee never saves any of the electronic data on a corporate computer. Employees insist that they have a reasonable expectation of privacy for their "raw thoughts" expressed by keystrokes in electronic format on a corporate computer. However, employers are asserting that any communications, raw or otherwise, composed on corporate computers isn’t private under current law.