Business Law: Principles for Today's Commercial Environment 3rd Edition by Marianne Moody Jennings, David Twomey, Marianne Jennings

Exercise 10

Discuss whether employees would have the right of privacy in the following e-mail situations:
a. E-mail sent in a company in which there is no warning given about the lack of privacy in e-mails. [Smyth v Pillsbury, 914 F Supp 97 (ED Pa 1996)]
b. An e-mail sent to co-workers from home using the employee's AOL account.
c. An e-mail sent from a laptop while the employee is traveling for the company.
d. An e-mail sent to a coworker over a company Internet system in a company in which the employer has promised privacy in e-mail. [Commonwealth v Proetto, 771 A2d 823 (Pa Super Ct 2001)]
e. Employer monitoring of the e-mails of any employee when those e-mails were stored in a file folder marked "Personal." [Mclaren v Microsoft Corp., 1999 WL 339015 (Tex App- Dallas 1999)]
f. Employees using company e-mail for union organization purposes. [Pratt Whitney, National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Advisory Memorandum Cases 12-CA-18446, 12-CA-18722, 12-CS-18863 (February 23, 1998)]