Recent studies conducted by Forrester Research suggest the people behind the Big Brother Awards aren’t as paranoid as some might think. Companies have become so concerned with inappropriate and dangerous use of company e-mail that nearly half of all large American companies employ people to screen outgoing e-mails. Many companies do not only employ someone to screen outgoing e-mail, but also to alter its content if necessary.

Senior staff are extremely weary over wasteful private uses of e-mail as well as leaked classified materials and trade information. Many executives justify the invasive policy as a legal and financial necessity. Questionable, perhaps, although recent insider trading scandals do lend a bit of legitimacy to their claims.

Nonetheless, the trend of e-mail monitoring is still disconcerting, especially since it is other humans who do the monitoring. A wealth of information, the information these companies are trying to protect, will be available to these people. If monitors prove to be untrustworthy it will be a great liability for the companies that employ them. In the end it is doubtful whether e-mail monitoring will solve any of the problems it is intended to, it may even create more.