Additionally, employers are increasingly monitoring their current employees' online social networking activities in an attempt to determine which of their employees are being "naughty" and which are being "nice".  Employer investigations have lead to numerous employees losing their jobs based on the content posted on these web sites.
 
Recently added to the naughty list, and terminated for their " What's on your mind?" posts and pictures were: an employee of the N.F.L.'s Philadelphia Eagles for calling his boss a "retard" for letting a rival franchise acquire one of the Eagles star players [1]; 13 Virgin Airlines flight attendants for criticizing the airline's safety standards and insulting the airline's passengers [2].; and a Supervisor for the Olive Garden who posted pictures of herself, her underage daughter, and other restaurant employees drinking beer [3].
 
Self - aggrandizing micro blogging on social media outlets have become a new international favorite past time. Is it reasonable for an  employee to expect privacy, and more importantly, legal protection from an employer or potential employer, for personal information, thoughts, activities and photographs, that an employee posts on the World Wide Web?
 
While the courts are continually challenged by the application of existing laws to new technologies, .we have yet to see right to privacy statues, or legal activities laws, interpreted and applied to content posted on the internet.  Simply stated, there may be no legal remedy or compensation for those who are financially harmed by what is characterized by the adversely affected employees as "Employer Hacking."  So employees beware!

However, as long ago as 1769 an English Court stated: 

"It could be done only on principles of private justice, moral fitness, and public convenience, which, when applied to a new subject, make common law without a precedent; much more when received and approved by usage." [4] 

In 2006, The authors of the  book, Privacy, Information, and Technology opined, 

"That the individual shall have full protection in person and in property is a principal as old as the common law; but it has been found necessary from time to time to define anew the exact nature and extent of such protection. Political, social, and economic changes entail the recognition of new rights, and the common law, in its eternal youth, grows to meets the demand of society." [4]  

.The Judiciary has a long and distinguished history of interpreting the appropriate application of the laws that govern an individual's right to privacy based upon the realities of the times.  Therefore,while it  may be unlikely that any existing statue will be applied to provide a remedy to employees that disparage their employer, employer's customers or employer's business activities on the Internet, employers must nevertheless beware! 

[1] 'Eagles Employee fired over Facebook Post" http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/eagles-employee-fired-for-facebook-post/
 

[2] "Crew Sacked over FacebookPosts"  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7703129.stm

[3] Don Aucoin, 'Myspace vs. Workplace, Boston Globe
 

[4] Privacy, Information and Technology By Daniel J. Solve, Marc Rotenberg, Paul M. Schwartz

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