Advice On Employees’ E-Mail

You may have seen the November 24 Wall Street Journal article about a handful of recent court decisions finding that employees have a right to privacy in e-mails transmitted on personal e-mail accounts accessed on company computers. Importantly, under these and similar decisions, the employees would not have had such a right to privacy had their employers maintained a well-drafted technology use policy. Accordingly, it has become more important that employers draft, disseminate and enforce workplace technology use policies to defeat employees' claims that personal e-mails on company computers, including communications with attorneys, are protected by a right to privacy. A well-drafted technology use policy should provide that: