ChatterBank2 mins ago
Personal Email Monitoring at Work
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No best answer has yet been selected by briankilb. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.It depends on your companies policy and what is in your contract as well. I, as a network administrator, have been asked on a number of occasions to monitor an individuals mailbox by management, who is suspected of abusing the companies resources eg. sending so many emails of a personal nature, it's unlikely they get work done. It has resulted unfortunately in some dismissals.
I would really recommend that you keep personal email correspondence to a minimum. Remember that the company has system backup procedures in place and effectively every email is always backed up. If they ever need to "dig-up any dirt on you" for what ever reason, they can always pull out a 'suspect' email that you sent 101 years ago and forgot all about, and use it against you.
If your employer does not warn you that they monitor your email, you may have a case against them for invasion of privacy. They also must be very careful about what they do with personal eMail they may intercept. (They cannot treat the private information as their own, anymore than you can find a wallet in the street and claim it as your own!)
Most good employers have a clearly stated policy. It is common practise to allow moderate use of an employers system for private mail, during the employees own time, with the understanding that the employer may intercept the mail and may withdraw the privelege.
You must also consider the employers position - if you receive or send eMail - private or not - which breaks the law in any way, they will be held jointly liable with you. This being the case, it is not unreasonable that they should want to check that you are behaving with their equipment!