This is nothing new and we have brought this on to ourselves. This is a gross invasion of privacy and the employer had no fcuking right to snoop like that on you even if they own the communication devices, laptop, cell-phone etc.. Why have we surrendered so much to these corporations.
The people let go find similar or better jobs in startups which encourages competition. Just because they were let go from a large company does not mean, there is no demand for their skills. In fact there is a huge demand.