Legal to Search Employee Digital Files

[FOBSIDE]

Sorry, I really didn't know where to post this. I had heard it was legal for an employer to look through digital records, such as email for employees. I'm assuming this is stuff on the work computer, owned by the company, and on the work domain, also owned by the company. Is there a law that explicitly says that or is there just no law against it, or is it completely illegal?

 

[EagleKeeper]

No law against it.

company property - period.

 

[kevnich2]

As long as it's company property. Although with my company, we have every employee sign a computer usage form that basically states that we can at any time with no reason whatsoever examine their work computers for misuse.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Consult your lawyer.

 

[FOBSIDE]

I will definitely consult a lawyer on this for any real application, but I was just curious if anyone knew off the top of their head. What about checking someone's work email? I would assume that since the domain is owned by the company, the same rules would apply.

 

[KlokWyze]

Yah they can pretty much look @ anything they want on your work PC. Including passwords, private emails, etc... courts give big business a lot of leeway in many legal areas.

 

[txrandom]

My dad works for a major oil company. If he is VPNed into their network and has AIM running, it will automatically log all his conversations

 

[SViper]

As long as it's the company's computer and resources (i.e. e-mail server), then the company can do whatever it wants to. Although, we still have a EULA that users agree to before they can use the computers. You can't ever be too careful about something like that. Just like everyone else is saying, consult a lawyer to avoid any problems with it.