Private email messages at work can be read by employers...

[truebluesteve]

I think this probably confirms what most of us suspected

 

Private messages at work can be read by employers, says court - BBC News

[Joanne]

I think that's fair enough. If you are using company property then they are within their rights to check how you are using it.

 

If you want to do something private you do it on your own device.

[FN-GM]

Completely agree. All data on our system is property of the organisation no the person who created it.

[jmak]

Our AUP makes this clear - you're welcome to use our systems for personal use, but it can all be monitored.

[truebluesteve]

Our AUP makes this clear - you're welcome to use our systems for personal use, but it can all be monitored.

 

The judgement did say that employers must have clear guidelines about what data they can collect etc.

[sonofsanta]

Nice to have some legal precedent for our AUP, then.

 

We've always said we can access all staff & student data, files & emails, but we'l only do so with appropriate authority: for students, if a teacher asks; for staff, if a member of SMT asks, and I always get that in writing.

 

Not sure where we'd stand on personal email, but practically we wouldn't have an easy way of accessing it anyway. I suppose anything supremely dodgy would get picked up by Securus, and that monitoring is in the AUP as well.

[smithson83]

When asked about this type of thing my reply is always "Do not do anything on school equipment that you would not do with the HT standing over your should watching you do..."

[bald_pig]

Seems like a clickbaity headline, the article says that the company use yahoo messenger, he should have been signed into a work account and was signed into a personal account when they checked.

[hardtailstar]

Seems like a clickbaity headline, the article says that the company use yahoo messenger, he should have been signed into a work account and was signed into a personal account when they checked.

 

But using his companies device during work hours.

[bald_pig]

But using his companies device during work hours.

 

Exactly, the headline implies they can just demand to see your private messages so long as you're at work.

[timbo343]

What about personal mobiles - sending text messages???

[sparkeh]

The ruling is not as clear cut as the headline suggests.

 

For example

His employer had discovered that he was using Yahoo Messenger for personal contacts, as well as professional ones.

Because it believed it was accessing a work account, the judges said, the firm had not erred.

The judges said: "The employer acted within its disciplinary powers since, as the domestic courts found, it had accessed the Yahoo Messenger account on the assumption that the information in question had been related to professional activities and that such access had therefore been legitimate. The court sees no reason to question these findings."

The device used to send the messages was owned by the employer, and the judges did not elaborate on whether it would have made any difference if he had used a personal device.

 

This is not carte blanche to access all employees personal messaging whilst at work.

[pcstru]

Nice to have some legal precedent for our AUP, then.

 

From the article :

 

Going forward, he added, all employers should clearly explain any rules that would allow them to check on their workers' online activities.

 

"All employees should be notified personally of the said policy and consent to it explicitly," he wrote.

 

IMO, you are doing well if you have that covered.

[GREED]

Seems like a clickbaity headline, the article says that the company use yahoo messenger, he should have been signed into a work account and was signed into a personal account when they checked.

 

Company should take a long hard look at itself... who still uses Yahoo Messenger?

 

< Awaits backlash >

[Sagima]

I have just this second been asked to allow yahoo messenger for the afternoon. Some journalism club reason