For convenience's sake, it's common for employees to occasionally send and receive personal messages on their work email. Many workers in the private sector access both personal and work email on their personal cellphones.

But even though it's convenient, this commingling can lead to confusion when an employer may need to access messages an employee may have sent privately. For example, the employer may be conducting an investigation about another employee, or a supervisor may want to determine whether a worker violated company policy by lying about being sick. In these cases, what privacy rights do employees have, and what are employers' legal obligations?

Private-sector employees typically have no right to privacy for work email, though different state privacy laws govern whether employers can access a worker's personal email. Some states require employers to give notice before monitoring email or deploying keylogging software that tracks what employees type.

For financial and legal reasons, many businesses monitor employee use of their computers, networks and email servers to protect proprietary information and prevent data breaches. The federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act and Stored Wire Electronic Communications Act generally allow businesses to track what employees do on company-owned devices and networks in the normal course of business. For example, employers can use keylogger software to flag when someone uses certain words that might signal harassment...

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