The working British public is largely in the dark about their rights to privacy at work, according to a study from Comparitech.com, a security and privacy comparison and reviews website. The survey conducted by OnePoll of 1000 employed people living in the UK found that more than half, 53pc don’t believe that employers should be allowed to read their emails at work and a further 36pc said that their employers are not legally allowed to read private messages sent during working hours. This is in stark contrast to the January European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling that stated employers were within their rights to review any messages sent during working hours.
Lee Munson, researcher at Comparitech.com said: “Many staff members won’t be clear what the policy is regarding bosses reading their emails unless they’ve read their employment contract in detail – and by then it may be too late. The study proves that people need to be more vigilant in knowing their rights in the workplace by thoroughly checking their contracts for reference to use of social media, personal email and chat at work, especially if they send private messages at work and are concerned about them being read.”
Some 13pc of those surveyed said that they would even consider quitting their jobs if they knew their employers were reading email and chat messages.
Patterson added: “Sending the occasional personal email at work does not seem unreasonable and bosses snooping on these messages could be considered an abuse of employee privacy, particularly if they contain personal data. But for those wishing to argue a ‘right to a private life during working hours’, we have seen that, particularly in the European Courts, it is not a solid defence. For the time being, it is safe to assume that your employer can access your emails or chat messages, so conduct yourself accordingly.”
Mark Deem, Partner at Cooley (UK) LLP, said that in his view, at the heart of the issue is the tension between employees being afforded the convenience of using corporate facilities to conduct their private lives during working hours and the ability of employers to understand and access information as it travels over their networks. He said: “Maintaining this fine balance is necessarily very difficult. Whilst monitoring emails is not in itself prohibited, employees should generally be made aware that emails may be monitored; equally, however, the extent to which employees seem unaware – especially in the post-Snowden climate – of the technical ability of employers to monitor private communications is somewhat surprising.
“With ownership of smartphones on the increase – and with access to corporate Wi-Fi networks more widespread – employers and employees alike could both benefit from policies designed to change present working behaviours and use of personal communications via personal email and social media accounts on personal devices over the corporate Wi-Fi network. This would offer greater privacy for the employee and remove the risks associated with unannounced monitoring by employers.”
Comparitech.com offers these tips for anyone concerned their employer is reading their personal messaging:
Check your employment contract and company policies and procedures to understand whether your personal emails can be read
If in doubt, assume everything sent and received on your corporate email account will be monitored and accessed by your employer
If you must send personal email at work, consider signing up for an encrypted webmail account (if permitted).
Better yet, always use your own personal device, connected to your own mobile account, not the corporate Wi-Fi network
