TODAYS QUESTION: Should workers expect privacy when using company technology?
For many professions, work and technology are now interlocked. However, standards for the amount of privacy employees have when using company-owned equipment remains nebulous. That could change this spring. On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case where it will decide whether employers have the right to monitor text messages sent on company pagers. City of Ontario v. Quon could establish new rules regarding workers rights for privacy on employer-owned electronics. The police department in Ontario, Calif., provided officers with pagers. Officers say the department’s informal policy allowed the pagers to be used for personal messages, as long as they paid for any overage charges. However, the department investigated officers whose devices regularly went over the monthly limit. Message transcripts from the city’s wireless provider were one piece of information it acquired. Transcripts showed that Sgt. Jeff Quon sent his wife, girlfriend and another officer hundreds of personal m
