| Arthur S. Alexion on Fri, 22 Feb 2002 02:30:11 +0100 |
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At 05:48 PM 2/21/2002 -0500, you wrote: The guy is using company equipment and company resources. He signed the policy manual. There's little issue there. E-mail using company resources is company property.
Now, what will be interesting is the upcoming court battle on whether reading someone's e-mail without a warrant violates wire-tapping law. This is currently being reviewed by the PA courts. If they rule negatively towards the reading of e-mail without a warrant, then what we propose will be illegal. Until then, to my understanding, it is not provided all parties are aware of the company policy. PA has the most stringent wiretapping law in the country (world?). Caller ID blocking was invented to satisfy the PA wiretap law. Before its development, Caller ID could not be offered in PA because the PUC determined that Caller ID (without blocking options) violated the wiretap law. Warrants are another issue. Warrants are required before the GOVERNMENT (not private parties or corporations) can violate someone's privacy. Warrants are not available to private parties under any circumstances. The PA wiretap law applies to private parties as well as the government. If the PA Supreme Court decides that eMail snooping by private parties is a violation of the wiretap law, then private parties will not be able to do it -- warrants are out. On a related topic, euphemisms can be dangerous. Other states that do not have the PA wiretap law and the federal government would have to consider whether eMail correspondents have "a reasonable expectation of privacy" in determining whether eMail snooping is legal. As long as the press promotes the euphemism that "sending eMail is like sending a postcard", then the technologically naive courts are likely to find no reasonable expectation of privacy, hence no 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Art Charles _____________________________________________________________________ Art Alexion mailto:arthur@alexion.com Arthur S. Alexion LLC http://www.alexion.com ---<>--- Click http://signature.coola.com/?arthur@alexion.com to put me in your Palm Address Book
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