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Accessing an Employee's Email on a Business Computer

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  • 10-22-2007, 08:37 PM
    DropGems
    Accessing an Employee's Email on a Business Computer
    An anonymous employee was recently fired. Their business laptop was taken away from them immediately. On the fired employees business laptop was access to their private email (not on company email server). A gmail notifier on the companys computer menu bar to be exact. Can the company legally access the former employees private email since it's on their computer? The private emails wouldn't be in plain site but the company would be able to get access to the private emails through a couple clicks on their computer. So I'm just wondering if this is legal and if the company can use these private emails in court? Thanks in advance.
  • 10-23-2007, 06:52 AM
    ZacUSNYR
    Re: Accessing an Employee's Email on a Business Computer
    The emails are not on the business laptop, they are on a remote server which the business laptop stores the login information for, because the employee was not given any warning or allowed time to remove such a login.

    I hope he has changed his password since then.
  • 10-26-2007, 07:23 PM
    DropGems
    Re: Accessing an Employee's Email on a Business Computer
    That's correct. The emails aren't technically on the business laptop though easy access to them was on the computer and I was just wondering if the easy access on the laptop gives the company the right to access and read through them.

    Yes, the password has been since changed. The fired employee is just worried that the company has gone through their private emails in the time gap since termination and changing the password.

    The employee is bringing up a lawsuit against the company and wants to know if these private emails can be used against them.

    Thanks for the reply.
  • 10-26-2007, 07:26 PM
    panther10758
    Re: Accessing an Employee's Email on a Business Computer
    Sueing for what? What are his damages?
  • 10-26-2007, 09:31 PM
    aaron
    Re: Accessing an Employee's Email on a Business Computer
    If the company has the emails and they are harmful to the employee's case, I would expect the company to try to find a way to use them, or to obtain them from another source.
  • 11-01-2007, 06:53 AM
    DropGems
    Re: Accessing an Employee's Email on a Business Computer
    Quote:

    Quoting aaron
    View Post
    If the company has the emails and they are harmful to the employee's case, I would expect the company to try to find a way to use them, or to obtain them from another source.

    There is no other source. The only way to obtain them would be going through private emails not on the company server. That's what I was wondering about.
  • 11-01-2007, 07:44 AM
    panther10758
    Re: Accessing an Employee's Email on a Business Computer
    The information was on a "company" laptop. This means it belonged to them! It is never a wise idea to access personal emails etc from company computers.
  • 11-01-2007, 09:20 AM
    aaron
    Re: Accessing an Employee's Email on a Business Computer
    There are always other sources. For example, the company could subpoena the records directly from the email service. The company may be able to obtain copies from other recipients. Parts of the emails may be cached on the hard drive. Etc.
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