The decision we blogged about in this space last week is creating quite a bit of buzz in both privacy and employment law circles. My employment law colleagues in our New York office have authored an analysis of the decision here: Employment Alert: New Jersey Supreme Court Finds Privacy Rights in Employee E-Mails
And, the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ Daily Dashboard quoted my partner, Jen Rubin:
PRIVACY LAW — U.S.
Employee E-mail Decision Spurs More Questions
Last week’s New Jersey Supreme Court decision that employees should have an expectation of privacy when they use personal e-mail accounts on corporate computers is raising new questions, NetworkWorld reports. The court’s decision specified that when it comes to monitoring employees’ actions online, “employers have no need or basis to read the specific contents of personal, privileged, attorney-client communications in order to enforce corporate policy.” Jen Rubin, attorney at Mintz Levin in New York, says the decision brings up new questions about employer ownership of e-mail created on company-issued computers and is likely to have businesses taking much closer looks at their e-mail policies. Full Story
This is an important decision with wide-reaching implications. If you are an employer and you have not looked at your “Acceptible Use Policy” or other such electronic systems policy in a while (or worse, if you don’t have one at all…..), this case should motivate you to pull it out and look again.
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