This is legally required in some sectors for regulation purposes, notably finance. I think a lot of people who casually throw out this sentiment don't appreciate that aspect of it.
+1. I work in regulatory compliance at a financial firm. My current firm doesn't do this because we don't originate trades, but when I worked at a hedge fund, all forms of electronic communications were MITM'd & recorded for regulatory reasons (and to monitor for IP theft - we did sue a soon former employee after he emailed source for a quantitative model to his personal gmail) primarily to combat or defend against insider trading.
No. I've never worked for GS. In the case I'm talking about, the employee was sued 4 hours before he was fired. Federal criminal charges came a few months later.
