Monitoring Employee E-mails

E-mail can be powerful evidence in a dispute, and whether employers and criminal investigators may use employee e-mail in litigation proceedings is a hot topic. A recent New York federal court decision outlined the current law in this area.

In United States v. Finazzo, the court reaffirmed that employees have little-to-no expectation of privacy in e-mails received through employer accounts where the employer has a sufficiently worded technology, company systems, or e-mail policy. The case is also a lesson in how personal e-mails received by employees in their work accounts can support a termination -- or even be used as evidence against employees in a criminal trial. Here's what happened.