Re: i need some good advice, my boss is reading my emails

From: xpyttl (xpyttl_NOSPAM_at_earthling.net)
Date: 03/04/05

  • Next message: Gerald Vogt: "Re: i need some good advice, my boss is reading my emails" 
    Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2005 13:38:41 -0500

    "M. Trimble" <met12327@yahoo.com> wrote in message
    news:YC_Vd.2647$Ru.1648@okepread06...

    > No disrespect here, but I believe that even where there is such a right,
    > either as defined by courts or by statute/law, there are some limits. As
    > for example, the employer has a right to snoop on activities deemed
    illegal
    > or otherwise detrimental to the employer, but snooping in general?

    In the U.S., at least, the employer does have the right. Indeed, it is
    almost an obligation. Here in the states the legal atmosphere is such that
    an employer can get sued for not only actual wrongs, but for not preventing
    things he didn't know about. If he fails to at least occasionally monitor
    what is happening in email, he is likely to find the company liable in a
    civil suit, and possibly even criminally negligent.

    IANAL, but the courts seem to have established that the assets owned by the
    company are for the company's use, and the company is responsible for seeing
    that use is proper, and used in the furtherance of the company's goals. As
    best I can tell, this is a rare area where the law has been pretty
    unambiguous.

    Now, many companies have some policies that permit limited use of email and
    the like for personal reasons. Those same companies typically state in
    those policies that email is monitored. And those same companies are likely
    to take a dim view of a boss who takes that monitoring on himself, and puts
    it to petty use.

    But if it's a small company without such policies, then chances are almost
    anything goes. There is a small chance that HR or someone else in the
    company might find this particular boss's activities inappropriate, but you
    are not likely to find any friends in the court system, which seems to view
    using the company's email for personal use, or even for disparaging the
    company within the company, as essentially stealing.

    ..

  • Next message: Gerald Vogt: "Re: i need some good advice, my boss is reading my emails"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: Please explain ?
      ... Given drivers and test drivers are ... Perhaps it is Ferrari that should be held fully accountable for the ... Nige' nicked the document from his employer, ... Stepney continues to deny this - so until the real courts of law (in Italy ...
      (rec.autos.sport.f1)
    • Re: OT - House Approves Sexual Discrimination Bill
      ... It's a civil case, so it's the courts, not the government. ... the courts are part of the government- the judicial branch. ... Our individual rights are supposed to trump 'group' rights. ... employer to run your business as you see fit doesn't trump the group ...
      (rec.martial-arts)
    • Re: Advice on reviewing simple data log
      ... If you want to monitor computer usage of your ... impression that employees have some guarantee of privacy. ... sided with the Employer in any disputes. ... The courts have upheld that this doesn't prevent an employer from capturing ...
      (microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion)
    • Re: What percentage of kernel is non-paid work?
      ... The general rationale is that the employer has ... undue power to set the terms of the contract. ... Even when courts have held that the authorship was deliberately ...
      (comp.os.linux.development.system)
    • Re: Packet sniffing problems
      ... "Employer actions may not jeopardize the ... which clearly establishes that the employer *may* monitor the use ... it isn't even clear to me that the sentance ... monitoring and control the user of electronic mail and data networks. ...
      (comp.security.misc)