Privacy does not exist in the modern workplace. But why should it? You are not at work to do personal tasks. You are at work to do the tasks required by your company. If you have to splurge into something that your employer thinks is not work related then you should have a good excuse to why you have done it. Say a customer asks what something is on and you don't know. The answer could be easily found on the internet, therefore you searched for it and helped the customer get the right information. Certainly your employer wouldn't be mad at you for a legitimate excuse.

As far as email moitoring is concerned, it depends. Monitoring emails should be implemented during work time only. Some employees use their work email for personal use because it is their only means of email communication. If people send them emails and they check it outside the time they are on the clock then I have no problem with it. If employees are slacking and checking their email while working and wasting company resources making them pay you while doing personal errands, that is wrong. In the end, I believe that employers should monitor their employees because if the employees are not doing what they are supposed to be then they could be wasting company money and time which is not ok.

http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2001dltr0026.html