Unfortunately, very few states have any laws restricting employer spying. And while a 1986 amendment to the Federal Wiretapping Act prohibits employers from deliberately eavesdropping on employees' personal telephone calls (they're supposed to hang up when the call turns personal), it offers no real protection from, say, hidden cameras. A recent survey by the Society for Human Resources Management found that 11 percent of companies asked regularly use video cameras to monitor their workers.

But that doesn't mean there's no recourse -- sometimes lawsuits are successful, at least in the most egregious cases. In January, the Boston Sheraton hotel agreed to pay more than $200,000 to employees who filed suit in 1993 after they had been secretly videotaped in a hotel locker room. At least one worker was videotaped while undressing. Sheraton officials claimed that they were trying to catch employees smoking pot, but employees suspected that their bosses were attempting to tape union planning meetings. At any rate, no evidence of drug use was found.

So where does it end? Employers nowadays even punish people for what they do on their own time. Up to 81 percent of American firms test for drugs and many will fire or fail to hire someone for poor eating habits, smoking or drinking at home or in bars, dating co-workers, or even for riding a motorcycle. These people are risky, employers argue, and a healthy workplace is a cheap workplace. According to the ACLU, at least 6,000 American companies attempt to regulate what we do in our homes.