Private Messenger

[Dale Sr]

Colorado

Employee logs into FB on work computer—-allowed by employer. Private messenger is attached to FB somehow (pardon me for not knowing the technical aspect of this). Employee does not access messenger while logged into FB at work.

Employee leaves work without logging off of FB. Goes home and accesses messenger from home on personal PC and sends/receives messages.

Are these messages able to be monitored by employer (both legally and technically).

pretty sure the legal answer is yes if it can be done technically.

thanks

 

[Zigner]

From a technical aspect, almost definitely yes.

From a legal standpoint, I have to ask, does it matter? I mean, if the employer monitors it and fires the person, they don't have to give a reason for the firing (generally speaking).

 

[Dale Sr]

From a technical aspect, almost definitely yes.

From a legal standpoint, I have to ask, does it matter? I mean, if the employer monitors it and fires the person, they don't have to give a reason for the firing (generally speaking).

True. Thinking about it more, my question is more of a technical question I suppose.

thanks

 

[adjusterjack]

Technically, employer owned computers can easily be monitored by the employer.

All it takes is the right softwared installed in each computer.

how does an employer monitor computers at DuckDuckGo

 

[Dale Sr]

Technically, employer owned computers can easily be monitored by the employer.

All it takes is the right softwared installed in each computer.

how does an employer monitor computers at DuckDuckGo

Yes, but not sure these messages would be getting to the computer with messenger not open.

if email isn’t open, the mail doesn’t get to the PC until an email app is opened.

If FB and messenger wasn’t open, the messages would not get there. But if FB is open and messenger isn’t, not sure when the messages get to the PC….especially since PC was in sleep mode

not a legal question tough, so I should go to another board

 

[adjusterjack]

If employee is concerned about getting fired for misusing the employer's property, then employee should just stop misusing the employer's property.

It's that simple.

If you want a discussion that doesn't involve legal consequences, try City-Data. Lots of forums discussing lots of things.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Colorado
pretty sure the legal answer is yes if it can be done technically.

In general employers may monitor employee activity on employer provided devices or employer provided accounts. This is one of the big reasons why I tell clients to use their work devices/accounts only for work except in an emergency when there is no other option. A few states provide some additional protection, so state law does need to be taken into account, too. Is the question just a general hypothetical or a real world situation? And if it is a real world situation, did it occur in Colorado or some other state?

 

[Dale Sr]

False alarm.

Bc the work computer was asleep when personal computer was used to send private messages, and said messages were deleted before work computer “woke up”, messages never got to work computer.