{"id":2121,"date":"2004-04-05T19:55:51","date_gmt":"2004-04-05T19:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.california-labor-laws-attorneys.com\/blog\/?p=233"},"modified":"2004-04-05T19:55:51","modified_gmt":"2004-04-05T19:55:51","slug":"boss-read-my-text","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.california-labor-law-attorney.com\/boss-read-my-text\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t Text if You Don&#8217;t Want Your Boss to Read it!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><strong>U.S. Supreme Court Upholds California Employer&#8217;s Search of Employee&#8217;s Text Messages<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On June 17, 2010, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in the case of<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/09pdf\/08-1332.pdf\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">City of Ontario v. Quon<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>holding that a<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ci.ontario.ca.us\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">California Ontario police department<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span>did not violate the<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Fourth Amendment<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/a>when it searched an officer<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u2019<\/span>s text messages made on a department-issued pager. The case arose when respondent, Jeff Quon, a police officer with the City of Ontario<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u2019<\/span>s SWAT Team, exceeded his monthly messaging limit on a city-issued pager thereby causing the city to incur overage charges. After at least two other officers exceeded their monthly character allotment, the department audited two months worth of text messages to determine whether the department<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u2019<\/span>s monthly plan was adequate. During the course of the audit, it was discovered that many of the messages sent by Quon were not work-related and some were of a sexual nature. Quon filed suit against the City of Ontario alleging violation of the<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/criminal\/cybercrime\/ssmanual\/03ssma.pdf\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Fourth Amendment and the Stored Communications Act (SCA).<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The case presented the Court with an opportunity to address the issue of whether employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy in electronic communications made on employer-issued devices. However, the Court refused to make such a broad ruling stating that<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mondaq.com\/unitedstates\/article.asp?article_id=103368\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u201c<\/span>the judiciary risks error by elaborating too fully on the Fourth Amendment implications of emerging technology before its role in society has become clear.<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u201d<span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>It assumed that the principles governing the search of an employee<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u2019<\/span>s physical office space also apply to the search of electronic communications. As such, a search conducted for a non-investigatory, work-related purpose is reasonable where the search is <span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u201c<\/span>justified at its inception<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u201d<\/span> and <span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u201c<\/span>not excessively intrusive.<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u201d<span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mondaq.com\/unitedstates\/article.asp?article_id=103368\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Court concluded that the city<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u2019<\/span>s search in Quon was reasonable<\/span><\/a>, because the city had legitimate work-related purposes for the search (i.e., to determine whether the monthly messaging limit was sufficient and whether the department was paying for excessive personal messaging). Moreover, the scope of the search was not excessively intrusive, because it was restricted to two months worth of work-hour messages.<\/p>\n<p>Although Quon only applies in a public employment context, there are lessons to be learned for employees in both the public and private sector.<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span><strong>Here are a few precautions all employees should consider:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u2022<\/span> Request a copy of your employer<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u2019<\/span>s electronic communications policy and become familiar with its terms<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u2022<\/span> Assume that electronic communications on an employer-issued device are not private and may be reviewed<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u2022<\/span> Restrict your electronic communications to work-related activities<\/p>\n<p>If you do fall subject to a search, remember that your employer must have a work-related purpose and the search must be limited in scope. Should you have any questions regarding the legality of a search, do not hesitate to contact our\u00a0experienced<span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.california-labor-laws-attorneys.com\/contact-us.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Diego<\/a><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.california-labor-laws-attorneys.com\/contact-us.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u00a0Labor Law Attorneys<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Times New Roman;\">\u00a0<\/span>for an unbiased evaluation of your situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Supreme Court Upholds California Employer&#8217;s Search of Employee&#8217;s Text Messages On June 17, 2010, the United States Supreme Court [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,596],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employees-privacy","category-new-employment-laws"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Don&#039;t Text if You Don&#039;t Want Your Boss to Read it! - UELG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don&#039;t assume you have rights to privacy at work, especially on a company issued device. 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