Security News > 2010 > June > Supreme Court rules for employer in text-messaging case
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-06-17/business/sc-biz-0618-texts--20100617_1_text-messaging-work-related-purpose-jeff-quon By David G. Savage Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau June 17, 2010 WASHINGTON - People who want to send highly personal notes to a romantic partner were given a word of warning Thursday by the Supreme Court: Do not use the messaging system supplied by your employer if you want to keep them private. In a 9-0 ruling, the justices rejected a broad right of privacy for workers and said a supervisor may read through a public employee's text messages if he or she suspects work rules are being violated. The decision was the high court's first to consider the privacy rights of employees who send messages on the job. It comes at a time when millions of American workers spend at least part of their day talking on phones or sending messages on computers or cell phones, many of which are supplied by their employers. At issue was whether the Fourth Amendment's ban on "unreasonable searches" puts any limits on searches by public employers. The court said the limits were minimal, so long as the employer had a "work-related purpose" for inspecting an employee's desk or reading the messages sent by the employee on its paging system. [...] _________________________________________________________________ Attend Black Hat USA 2010, hosted at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada July 24-29th, offering over 60 training sessions and 11 tracks of Briefings from security industry elite. To sign up visit http://www.blackhat.com