Last Friday the Financial Times reported that in England "Employers who snoop on staff e-mails and internet use could risk legal action from short-termworkers, as well as permanent employees, under plans to extend a controversial new code. "

The original draft code issued by the Information Commission provoked outrage from industry leaders last year. The final code is due by the end of this year. British bosses say that "allowing employees to delete e-mails permanently - as envisaged by the draft code - would be an "open door to criminality."

Yeah, like my friend who got fired for running down management in an e-mail, and another guy I know who was ratted out by the sys admin for doing a search on "men in shiny shirts" on company time.