Appeals court upholds privacy of employee email

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb () cs columbia edu>
Date: October 17, 2006 1:45:36 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Appeals court upholds privacy of employee email

For IP, if you wish.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces has held that  
in a
criminal case, a Marine had a reasonable subjective and objective
expectation of privacy in personal emails sent on her government
computer.  This was despite the presence of a banner warning that the
machine could be monitored.

The court's reasoning turned on the facts in this case.  Modest personal
use of email was permitted, and the system administrator testified  
that he
normally didn't read users' emails for "privacy" reasons.  The search  
that
uncovered the incriminating messages was not routine or work-related;
rather, it was part of a criminal investigation into (other) misconduct.
The court held that that last point was crucial -- the wording of the
banner implied that the monitoring was for routine operational and
security purposes, rather than being for targeted law enforcement  
activity.

The full opinion is at
http://www.armfor.uscourts.gov/opinions/2006Term/05-5002.pdf

        --Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb


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