Supreme Court to Examine Digital Privacy of Employees

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Christopher McKinney

Next week the U.S. Supreme Court takes up an important privacy issue regarding digital communications: whether an employee's personal messages are private when transmitted over an electronic device supplied by an employer.  The Court has granted certiorari in City of Ontario v. Quon, which deals with the degree of privacy that an employee maintains in personal message sent digitally via a device provided by his or her employer.

Here are the background documents for the case:

This particular case deals with the privacy interests of public employees (police officers) and their personal use of text messaging on employer-provided phones.  It also has a few factual quirks (namely a conflict between the Department's written policies and statements made by supervisory personnel regarding whether officers' texts would be considered private) that could limit the case's widespread applicability.  However the Court is likely to outline some general principals regarding digital privacy in the employment setting that will be looked to by both public and private employers and employees in the future.

As usual, Nina Totenberg at NPR has an excellent summary of the case and its potential ramifications.  You can read and listen to her report here.

 

The case has some particular quirks that in some ways limi

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Employers: Be careful about viewing employees' personal text messages.

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Christopher McKinney

Employee privacy in the workplace has become an increasing thorny issue over the last 10 to 15 years as the methods by which employees communicate with each other and the outside world have multiplied and become more complex.  It used to be that privacy issues at work had to do with whether an employee had an expectation of privacy in their workplace locker or on their phone conversations.  Now employers have to be concerned about blog postings, chat rooms, email, Twitter, instant messenger, etc. etc.  So where does an employees right of privacy end and an employer's right to make sure its employees are doing what they ought to be doing begin?  Your guess is as good as mine.  

A recent decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has provided a loud wake-up call to employers who wish to monitor employee communications. In Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co, Inc. et al., 529 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2008), the court held that the City of Ontario, Calif., violated the state and federal constitutional privacy rights of its police officers when it reviewed their personal text messages.

Importantly, the Court in this opinion did not find it persuasive that the company had a policy stating that electronic emails should not be considered private to be determinative.  The Court held that the policy was not specific enough under the circumstances.  Does this mean that employers should be regularly reexamining their electronic communications policies to specifically address new forms of electronic communications?  In a word, yes.

 

Read the full opinion here.

 

 

 

Source: Law.com.

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