Is there any privacy in the workplace? Maybe.
A police officer thought he had some privacy when he was texting sexually explicit messages to his mistress on a pager that was provided to him by his employer.
There was no official policy saying employees on the force could not use the pager for personal messages, and officers were also asked to pay for text messaging that went over a certain text allotment so the officer figured it was cool if he texted whatever the heck he wanted.
Not so, claimed his employer, the Ontario, California police department. Department officials searched Police Sgt. Jeff Quon’s text messages and found the sex texts and that’s when Quon cried foul. He and several other officers sued the department for invasion of privacy.
I know what you all are thinking. In most cases, if you send personal messages via email or even use a company phone for personal stuff extensively, you could end up in trouble at work. The phone, the computer, etc. are the property of your employer so they could require you not to conduct personal business over what has been deemed by many courts as a company’s airwaves.
Well, turns out a circuit court found in favor of Quon and the other officers, and after an appeal by the police department the Supreme Court has now agreed to hear the case.
If the high court finds in the employees favor this could have far-reaching implications for workers throughout the country.
“If the Supreme Court upholds the Ninth Circuit decision, it is going to turn things upside down because all of a sudden employees will have a right of privacy despite what an employer might say,” said Bryan Cave attorney Roy Hadley, who specializes in electronic media and communications. “It will also raise questions about what kind of liability will employers be held accountable for if they can’t view their workers’ communications. Historically, if an employee is using their email account for illegal activity, there may be some liability on the part of an employer, especially if the employer monitored the account.”
This is one case we should all be watching going forward and I’ll provide updates here for you in 2010.
What’s your take? Were the officers correct in expecting some degree of privacy even though they were using their employer’s equipment?
December 22nd, 2009 at 10:48 am
No, the officers were not correct. There is no privacy in the workplace, and the sooner people understand and accept that, the sooner we can see nonsense like this lawsuit disappear.
December 22nd, 2009 at 10:50 am
Absolutely not. Even if they are legally correct, you can’t unring that bell.
December 22nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
We’re increasingly asked to leave our personal selves at the door when we go to work, but in reality no one does that. You’d have to be a robot to be able to. Since employers haven’t figured out yet how to get robots to do all our work, they’re going to have to understand that people are people.
If the sex texting didn’t impact the guys work why do they need to be questioning it…right?
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Our company has a clear policy statement that tells employees two things about their phones, PCs, and similar devices. 1) Occasional, limited personal use is permitted but must not interfere with business use. 2) All communications occurring over company-owned devices are not to be considered private and may be monitored or reviewed at any time.
So far, that has done the job. Employees can use the devices and communications networks from time to time for personal reasons, but they should not expect any of those communications to be considered private.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I can see if an employer makes it clear that these types of communications are not private then a worker would have a tough time making a privacy defense.
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Honestly, how much privacy do we really have, even on our personal devices? You see it on the news every day - someone’s computer/hard drive is confiscated by the police in an investigation. Phone records can be subpeonaed. We are reminded that ANYTHING we type on our computers can be retrieved, even if we delete it and then empty the recycle bin.
Does anyone really have all that “privacy”? The difference is that at work, the company proactively monitors (or has the ability to do so) what is communicated on company devices. The LAW can reactively monitor what we do our personal devices.
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:47 am
One thing everyone should remember is that all regular email communications travel across networks and the Internet in plain text–they not protected or encrypted in any way unless you’ve gone through extra hoops to protect them. I’ve known too many people who have emailed credit card information, passwords, SSNs, and other inforamtion without thinking about the fact that anyone with the right tools (minimally, a computer and some free software) could intercept and read their messages. Given the right circumstances and a little know-how, getting access to your email messages does not require someone to hack into your email account.
Most cell phone communications occur on encrypted networks, so they are more secure. I’ve never really looked at SMS messages, but am assuming they are similarly encrypted. Email messages sent from a smartphone will be encrypted while moving on the phone network, but will be unencrypted (”in the clear”) once they pass onto the Internet for delivery.
December 26th, 2009 at 1:00 am
This is a hot topic I think.
Maybe we have few privacy in workplace because in face it is a public place!
If you want to be have more privacy you have to work at home I’m afraid.
Work at home as a freelancer,is that a good idea?
So I recommend an online freelance platform, www.taskcity.com. Their professional offline service can help ture your simple idea into a real project.
Good luck!