Employer Read Home Email Account

[GradStudent2006]

What is the name of your state? MA

How crazy is this.

My employer monitors our emails at work - which is okay.

They get the passwords for our personal email.

They then proceed to read our personal emails by using these passwords. A coworker left the company, and the employer was still reading their personal emails using the password they had obtained. My coworker changed his password a few weeks after once it was discovered, though not before the employer had read some emails that jeapordized the jobs of current employees with several now being let go due to a "work slowdown" when that really isn't the case.

It's one thing for an employer to monitor emails within company walls, though for them to read personal email accounts is crazy.

Are there any grounds for a lawsuit?

John

 

[cbg]

What ACTUAL damages have occurred?

 

[pattytx]

What is the name of your state? MA

How crazy is this.

My employer monitors our emails at work - which is okay.

They get the passwords for our personal email.

They then proceed to read our personal emails by using these passwords. A coworker left the company, and the employer was still reading their personal emails using the password they had obtained. My coworker changed his password a few weeks after once it was discovered, though not before the employer had read some emails that jeapordized the jobs of current employees with several now being let go due to a "work slowdown" when that really isn't the case.

It's one thing for an employer to monitor emails within company walls, though for them to read personal email accounts is crazy.

Are there any grounds for a lawsuit?

John

Are you accessing personal email through the company internet? If so, don't be surprised they're reviewing them. If not, why are you giving them the password anyway?

 

[Zigner]

What "PROOF" do you have that this is happening?

 

[Gadfly]

I have to agree with the previous poster. If you are using company computers, network and internet access you have no expectation of privacy.

 

[GradStudent2006]

Internal vs External

The company obtained the passwords as the email was sent from within the company. This is fine.

The problem is they then used the password to log into the email account for an employee who was no longer in the company.

The proof is the internet trail showing the ISP the company uses. Since the employee had left the company, then it was someone in the company who was accessing the account. That is the proof which can be demonstrated. The hearsay are the conversations that occurred based on these home emails.

The damage is that a person is being let go because of this email snooping on a HOME email account.

 

[msiron]

If it's not from within the company or company email then what email account?????????????????? hotmail? Gmail? They cannot get into the persons at home, HOME provider account, like Comcast so what email account?

 

[Zigner]

So, basically you have no proof that the EMPLOYER accessed the email account. Got it?

 

[Ozark_Sophist]

Whoever accessed the former employee's email storage committed a felony. Using or diseminating information obtained unlawfully from an electronic storage device (email server as long it is not company owned) is also a felony. Unfortunately, the law is fairly new so there is little case history. The other employees being downsized as a result of the unlawful access to the former employee's email would have to demonstrate the emails accessed were never opened within the company email system or stored on a company server, etc. This is where the difficuty lies as emails spread like wildfire.

 

[Gadfly]

Here's an idea for the former employee: CHANGE THE PASSWORD.

 

[GradStudent2006]

There is proof. There is a "paper trail" that leads back to the firm. The proof is that whenever an email is read the IP address of the person reading it is stamped. This stamp will lead back to the firm. Here is the sequence of events.

1. An employee left the company, and so at this date this employee was no longer physically in the company to be reading their own Yahoo account.

2. The company still had the password to the Yahoo account, and was accessing the email account. The company obtained the password when the employee was still with the firm as the employee had accessed their own personal account.

3. The employee changed their password about 2 weeks after leaving; however it was too late as the company had been reading this employee's email. Most other employees had already learned not to use their personal email. The company has let go people who had sent email to the former employee (to their Yahoo account). These emails contained several things include discussions on salary negotiations with the company, the culture of the firm, and job opportunities at other companies.

It's one thing for a company to read emails sent within their walls, though quite another for them to actively read home email accounts.

 

[Gadfly]

But you miss the point that the employee opened the door by using company resources for his/her own benifit and then not changing the password in a timely manor. If there were a law against being stupid, the employee would be in jail.

 

[Ozark_Sophist]

But you miss the point that the employee opened the door by using company resources for his/her own benifit and then not changing the password in a timely manor. If there were a law against being stupid, the employee would be in jail.

Stupid is not an excuse for illegal activity. Unauthorized use of a password, accessing an email storage device (server), and use of the stolen information are all crimes. An IP address simply shows someone at that IP address committed the crime. It does not show who committed the crime.