Ethos Business Law

According to a recent article from the Wall Street Journal, some new cases have begun to erode the long-standing view that personal emails sent from a work computer can be monitored by employers.

In the past, most courts have treated corporate computers, and anything on them, as company property. However, in recent rulings, courts have begun to investigate the circumstances around disclosure of policies to employees and other factors. For example:

• In New Jersey, an appeals court ruled that an employee of a home health-care company had a reasonable expectation that email sent on a personal account wouldn’t be read.
• In San Francisco, a federal appeals court ruled that employers that contract with an outside business to transmit text messages can’t read them unless the worker agrees.

While it is probably too early to make any sweeping generalizations about this trend, it certainly suggests that employers need to review their policies, practices and training to make sure they do not run afoul of this evolving issue.

Email is a powerful tool for business.  However, the ease of using email can also be a curse when mistakes are made.  In my experience, one of the most seemingly innocent, yet problematic tools in email is the ‘Reply All’ feature. (more…)