Company sued after manager reads personal e-mails
May 25, 2010 by Sam NarisiPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Regulations & Compliance
Do employees have a right to privacy when using personal e-mail accounts, even when they send the messages at work? They may, depending on the company’s policies, according to a recent court decision.
An employee sued the company for discrimination. After the suit was filed, the company archived everything saved on her work computer to preserve evidence.
The saved files included e-mails she sent via a personal, password-protected account. The company didn’t access the account directly, but copies of the messages had been automatically saved to her browser’s cache.
Some of the e-mails were conversations between the employee and her attorney, which contained evidence the company felt would help its case.
After the employer presented the messages in court, the employee claimed her rights to privacy and attorney-client privilege had been violated.
The company argued the employee had no such rights — its computer use policy stated that anything done on workplace computers could be monitored.
But the court disagreed. The judge ruled the employee had a “reasonable expectation of privacy,” because the policy didn’t mention that e-mails sent using a personal account would be saved to her hard drive.
It didn’t matter that she sent the e-mails at work — since the account was password-protected and not administered by the company, she reasonably assumed the company wouldn’t be able to read them.
Add to that the fact that the e-mails were between the employee and her lawyer, and the court ruled the company was at fault when it read the messages and tried to submit them as evidence.
What can companies monitor?
In most cases, whether monitoring is legal or not comes down to one question: Who owns the e-mail?
In other words, are the messages stored on the company’s network or by a third party (as is the case with personal accounts, like Yahoo and Gmail)?
While employers are normally within their rights to monitor employees’ work e-mail, courts will usually draw the line when the data’s stored by a third party.
Also, keep in mind:
- Have a clear-cut computer use policy – Employees can also win in court when they show they have a “reasonable expectation” of privacy. So inform all employees that their Web use at work will be monitored — and think twice before conducting any monitoring that isn’t clearly mentioned in the policy.
- Train managers – Some supervisors will go to great lengths when they suspect an employee of wrongdoing. But they should be warned that an investigation could become an invasion of privacy.
Cite: Stengart v. Loving Care Agency
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Tags: court, e-mail, monitoring, privacy
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