Personal Email Monitoring at Work

[briankilb]

Legally, what's the position on the surveillance by an employer of personal email? That's to say: is it legal for an employer to access and read items of personal correspondence?

[undercovers]

yes - if its the work based email then they effectively own it and allow you to use it, if you want to be private don't use the work email. I believe they are meant to warn you you are being monitored but this thats just good practice rather than law

[JSB]

At places I've worked, most employees circumvented this by using either Hotmail or another web-based mail system when sending private mail.  Afraid briankilb is absolutely right.

[JSB]

Sorry I meant undercovers was right - (note to self - read the question properly)

[wideboy]

Not so sure on the 'private' bit. You may have to find the appropriate (quite new) law on this. My understanding was that they could legally look at any email if it was on their time (and their computers). Not sure what the situation is as regards use during lunch hours etc. (Maybe using a wireless laptop might get round this?)

[wideboy]

To JSB: Some companies are now stopping access to Yahoo and Hotmail etc.!!!

[Tritan]

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.

[badams]

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!