In the midst of a heated litigation commenced by an employer against its former employee for alleged violations of a non-compete agreement, an employee returned the cell phone she used during her employment. Prior to returning the phone, she deleted all emails that were stored on the phone. However, the employer was able to access
employee personal email
Employers Have An Obligation To Provide Meaningful Direction To Employees In Email Searches, But Employers Can’t Be Compelled To Recover Company Emails Stored On Personal Accounts Of Employees
A recent case from the Northern District of California raises the importance of actively engaging with employees to coordinate the search for documents and electronically-stored information to comply with the employer’s discovery obligations. At the same time, the Court ruled that an employer cannot be compelled to produce business-related emails from the personal email accounts…
Keyloggers Beware–Companies Risk Being Sued By Employees
A U.S. District Court in Indiana has ruled that a company’s use of keylogger software to access an employee’s personal e-mail account may have violated the Stored Communications Act (“SCA”).
Keylogging or keystroke logging is the tracking of the keys struck on a keyboard, typically in a covert manner.
In Rene v. G.F. Fishers, Inc.…
New Jersey Supreme Court Rules on Personal E-mail Privacy: Stengart v. Loving Care
Co-author: Joseph J. Lazzarotti
The New Jersey’s highest Court has concluded that an employee, Marina Stengart, could reasonably expect that e-mail communication with her lawyer through her personal, password-protected, web-based e-mail account would remain private, and that sending and receiving them using a company laptop did not eliminate the attorney-client privilege that protected them. The Court…
‘Tis The Season…For Data Breach
As the holidays approach, more of us will be utilizing work time, and likely work resources, to handle our holiday shopping. Some of us may even post our shopping successes or gift ideas on Facebook or email coupons to friends. Doing so not only results in a loss of employee productivity, but also creates significant…