Employee Privacy Rights

In recent years, an increasing amount of attention has been paid to a body of law protecting an employee’s “right of privacy.” Common law privacy rights, unlike the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable government searches and seizures, provide a remedy for the acts of private persons. (http://www.publaw.com/privacy.html). Nowhere in the United States Constitution will you find the word “privacy”. The U.S. Supreme Court has nevertheless repeatedly declared that the Bill of Rights implicitly forbids governmental intrusion upon various “Zones of Privacy.” Examples include the First Amendment right of association, the Third Amendment prohibition against the quartering of soldiers in any house in time of peace without the owner’s consent, the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. (http://www.wnet.org/ archive/federalist/story-privacy.html). The Supreme Court recogn...