{"id":2531,"date":"2010-04-08T20:33:05","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T00:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/?p=2531"},"modified":"2022-12-30T12:47:45","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T17:47:45","slug":"update-email-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/update-email-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Update Email Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Update<\/a>A court case coming out of New Jersey could impact most firms\u2019 privacy and security practices according to an article<\/a> on DarkReading<\/a><\/em>. The New Jersey Supreme Court recently ruled in Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc.<\/a>, 408 N.J.Super. 54, 973 A.2d 390 (Superior Ct., A.D. 2009) that an employer can not read email messages sent via a third-party email service provider, even if the emails are accessed during work hours from a company PC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The court found the company’s policy on email use to be vague<\/strong>, noting it allows “occasional personal use<\/strong>.” “The policy does not address personal accounts at all,” the decision said. “The policy does not warn employees that the contents of such emails are stored on a hard drive and can be forensically retrieved.”<\/p>\n

The ruling written by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner in part states that the employee could, “reasonably expect that emails she exchanged with her attorney on her personal, password-protected, web-based email<\/a> account, accessed on a company laptop, would remain private.<\/em>\u201d Rabner continues that the employee, \u201cPlainly took steps to protect the privacy of those emails and shield them from her employer. She used a personal, password protected email account instead of her company email address and did not save the account’s password on her computer.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The law firm of Jackson Lewis<\/a> provides a legal overview <\/a>of the case on their blog, The Workplace Privacy Data Management and Security Report<\/a> recommends that\u00a0employers consider modifying<\/strong> their existing electronic communication policies to include:<\/p>\n