Will The U.S. Supreme Court Provide Clarity On Employee Privacy?
The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to accept a case on a data privacy issue related to whether or not an employee has a reasonable expectation of privacy for personal messages sent on devices owned by an employer. The legal question revolves around whether or not such personal messages are protected under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution that prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Ostensibly, this is about a narrow situation where a public employee had his pager messages transcribed into text and read by his superior. Practically, it touches a much broader and more important issue of how employee data privacy affects the management of information that organizations, including business, governmental and non-profit entities, need to keep and examine for legitimate purposes, such as compliance with government regulations or discovery related to a court case. It’s easy to understand how a strong stance on behalf of employee data privacy might create significant problems
