For today’s wired workers, last week brought both good and bad news.  Let’s start with the good.

 

On June 18^th, a federal appeals court made it more difficult for employers to snoop on e-mails and text messages their workers send from company accounts.  Under the ruling, any employer that contracts with an outside business to transmit text messages cannot read them unless the worker agrees.  In a unanimous opinion, Judge Kim Wardlaw wrote that users of text-messaging services have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” regarding messages stored on an outside service provider’s network.  The ruling further limits employers’ access to employee e-mail on internal servers.

 

Since most organizations use outside companies for text messaging services, it is believed the ruling will have a greater impact on employee text messaging.  As long as an employer maintains e-mail on an internal server, the company continues to have the right to read and review all employee-written e-mail messages transmitted via that server.

 

As to the bad news, it looks like lots of unauthorized snooping into employee e-mail may be taking place.  A new study released by Cyber-Ark, a computer security firm, reports that loads of IT professionals admit to snooping on confidential employee information.  In fact, of 300 Information Technology specialists questioned, at least one in three admitted they’ve used administrative passwords to find out other people’s salaries, read board meeting minutes or scan the personal e-mails of co-workers.

 

I see the study as proof positive of Mary Crane’s #1 rule regarding e-mail: Never, ever type anything in an e-mail written on a firm or company computer that you would not feel comfortable seeing on the front page of The New York Times.