E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace

E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace
Mark Rasch, 2006-07-31

Even with a well-heeled corporate privacy policy stating that all employee communications may be monitored in the workplace, the legality of e-mail monitoring is not as clear cut as one might think.

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E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-07-31
Hans Gruber

And what about our private email accounts? Does work "own" our email that we may access, using corporate resources, on a corporate network, during corporate business hours?

Also, the stipulation of who owns what (to me) is stil "fuzzy", and the logic going behind it makes almost no sense any mor...

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E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-07-31
Mike Smith (1 replies)

BTW, this also goes along the idea or notion that if you do something that you're NOT supposed to do at work, DON'T DO IT. Corporations are looking for any excuse to fire or layoff people nowadays -- DON'T GIVE THEM A REASON TO MIGRATE YOUR DIVISION OR COMPANY OFFSHORE.

It's pretty simple. If y...

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Re: E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-11-15
Anonymous

But what if it doesn't belong to them? Say I'm at home and I receive an email (a forwarded email)on my PC that I purchased, using an ISP that I pay for. But the email is about another co worker doing some bad things. I'm angry so I forward this email to personal recipients in my address book (yes...

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E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-07-31
Anonymous

Maybe I am wrong here but...
If you work for a corporation then you are acting as an agent for that entity. Therefore any communication you make on behalf of that entity (e-mail, fax, voice, video) is in fact the corporation's property.

So why in the world would anyone expect privacy in the work...

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E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-02
Craig S Wright (2 replies)

This is easy. This is commonly fixed by the general contractual terms that most good lawyers will employ.

Terms may be expressly agreed into a contract. ANY contract. The of a GOOD contract will include terms state the choice of terms , choice of venue and the subject matter jurisdiction etc.
...

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Re: E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-02
Mark D. Rasch (2 replies)

Ah.. that takes care of the consent of the employee.. what about consent of the other party?...

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Re: Re: E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-04
Anonymous

The other party being the employer would be the party adding the terms that the employee would abide by.

Craig...

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Re: Re: E-mail privacy in the workplace 2007-06-29
Anonymous

I sent an email to a CEO of a large corporation about a product I did not like. Someone at my ISP intercepted the email sent me an email and called mea "crack head moron." What can I do to fine this person?...

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Re: E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-03
Todd Knaarr (2 replies)

I'd bear in mind, though, that contracts don't trump the law. Depending on how the law's written it may apply in addition to any terms of the contract, or it may trump any terms in the contract....

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Re: Re: E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-04
Anonymous

You are taking of innominate terms or terms implied through statute.

Again ther eis provision to chose the location that the dispute will be decided. This trumps many of the issues as the civil complainant has to be heard in the specified juristiction.

Criminal breaches are a separate matter...

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Contracts and the Law 2006-08-04
Mark D. Rasch

In many cases, contracts DO "trump" the law. So, while you have a RIGHT not to have calls intercepted, you can give that right away by contract (or be forced to by agreement.) The same applies to permissible uses of email and computers....

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E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-02
Anonymous

So running snort is a crime in many states?

That hacker has privacy rights too. Jeez.

...

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E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-02
Anonymous (1 replies)

Regarding the phone calls between California and Georgia being monitored and recorded at the Georgia end, why is this communication not subject to Federal law as opposed to State law? The Federal law should supersede, IMHO, becaue of the Interstate Commerce Clause (Article 1 Clause 3). IANAL, thou...

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Re: E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-04
Mark D. Rasch

Under the Commerce Clause and the Supremacy Clause, federal law supercedes state law when it is intended to "occupy the field." The history of Title III (the wiretap law) indicates that it applies ONLY to wiretaps by federal agents, or wiretaps to be used in federal court, and that states are free ...

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E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-02
Ian Yates

I thought Scott McNealy had already dealt with this subject....

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Take measures yourself to protect YOUR privacy... 2006-08-04
Anonymous (1 replies)

If you don't want others to read your e-mail, YOU should take the initiative to secure it properly; this includes a complete anti-theft solution, not just encryption. In addition to simply encrypting email and attachments, senders should use software that enables them to assign rights to recipients ...

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Re: Take measures yourself to protect YOUR privacy... 2006-08-18
Anonymous

the article you provided seems to be more about how companies can protect themsleves and monitor their email, which is also useful for companies who are interested in protecting company IP.

Then again, individuals could also use anti-theft email too for their own IP and data on their comp. Cool ...

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E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-09
Anonymous

Where I work, after people lose their jobs, the company does not turn off their email. Instead, it is forwarded to someone else, usually their boss....

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So how do you mitigate the risk of the ECPA 2006-08-10
Scott (1 replies)

Mark, what steps can employers take to mitigate the risk of the ECPA? What is "unlawful interception of communication and what is lawful?"

Does the provider exception give system administrators and security personel the green light to monitor inbound/outbound company provided or private (such as...

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Re: So how do you mitigate the risk of the ECPA 2006-08-25
Dan

Scott:

Great point. Employers have a vested interest to monitor communications. We don't monitor just because we can; I would argue that to stand the test of legality, we must prove that the monitoring was essential to the the employer's protection of her ability to continue to operate her busi...

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Ever heard of sniffing? 2006-08-14
Anonymous

Mark,

You make a point of saying that e-mail is never "intercepted", while I think you're wrong here. What about a simple tool that sniffs traffic on port 25, looking for incoming e-mails and storing them on disk? This doesn't have to be done on an MX per se....

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Question ab't E-mail privacy in the workplace 2006-08-28
Penguinisto

Okay, so how does the email admin (and by extension, backup/Disaster Recovery) fit into this? After all, email is routinely backed-up, troubleshooting a balky SMTP server sometimes means looking into the contents of an active mail queue to see/prove mangled email (so you know if a problem stems loca...

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E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace 2006-10-28
Anonymous (1 replies)

Here is a question for you. How about this scenario. A COO of a small (10 person company) who also manages the server (supposingly to ward off spam, viruses and crashes) has been reading personal emails of the CEO, officer manager, human resource manager (you get the point) and has SHARED informatio...

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Re: E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace 2006-11-09
Anonymous

What about the rights of independent contractors who use their clients' url/email? Also a small firm with no privacy policy in place (in California). ...

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E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace 2007-01-16
Anonymous

I quit company A with a no future business dealings provision in my contract. I worked in exchange for ownership of software for two of the owners of company A who had a company B. Unknown to me and over false denials one of the owners of company B was secretly using company A equipment to record my...

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E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace 2007-02-26
Anonymous

I had a co-worker get on my email on my computer (the only way she could access it) and forward it to herself. It was an email I sent to my boss. She then turned around and got an email off another computer from my boss to her boss and forwarded to herself. She then walked out and abandoned her j...

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E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace 2007-04-09
Anonymous

I am aware that e-mails may be monitired by employers for their "security" reasons. But What is the senders right as far as the message being intercepted, if not a "security issue"?? Are messages randomly intercepted without regard to content???...

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E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace 2007-06-07
Anonymous

What if I was released from employment and my employer saved the cookies for my personal yahoo account and has read my mail to the Risk department after I was terminated? This employer actually presented my personal email to other employees as a way to harass them....

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E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace 2007-11-05
Anonymous

What about when an ex-employer steals private emails from a former employee and send threatening notes based on this stolen info?

Ex employee sends note using private email account to private person. Since the former employer has this person's Blackberry and the personal account is on it, they c...

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E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace (HEARSAY) 2008-03-05
Anonymous

I thought it was interesting that email forwarding basically ends your right to privacy. How can you expect privacy if you can't guarantee what will happen to your email once you hit the send button?

Then I thought...Does email forwarding basically mean it becomes hearsay evidence. Meaning..it ...

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E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace 2009-02-20
Anonymous

Question: Does anybody know if there is way a employer can find out what type of website I visit from my home computer? IF the employer went to the owner of the website and said "give me list email address that logged on to your site over the lst 30 days." Can they do that? Would the website com...

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E-Mail Privacy in the Workplace 2009-07-17
Anonymous

Can my employer read my emails and then forward them out to other employees if it is a joke that he likes? It was originally sent from a family member and he forwarded out all of their information as well....

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