Can my company read my emails?

Recently I was asked to investigate a employees use of the work email system. Which lead me on to a the question of whether I could read employees emails as they may use it for personal business as well. Now our lawyers say that we can, as anything on the companies systems belongs to the company, but I decided to do a little research on my own and this is what I found out.

First of all your company should have an email policy. If it doesn't I would be very surprised. It should of also have made attempts to bring this to your attention.

The policy should:

• set out clearly when you may or may not use work email for private business;
• make clear what a reasonable use of private business is
• explain why your employer monitors emails, the extent of the monitoring, and the means used;
• outline the penalties you can expect if you breach the policy;

Now with that said the company can only look at certain emails in your inbox.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000) prevents anyone without "lawful Authority" from reading an email without the express permission of the sender and receiver.

BUT the Telecommunications Regulations Act (2000) Lists exceptions to this very general rule, which means that a company can monitor business emails, but only to

• ascertain regulatory compliance
• detect unauthorized use
• prevent/detect criminal activity

Notice here that the key word is Business. These exceptions do not apply to personal emails. In fact an employer should take all reasonable steps to not read personal emails, including those sent from a work email address. In fact where ever possible the use of automated software should be used to scan emails for the above infractions.

Now as is usual in the law, step forward the Human Rights Act. Under the Act you have the right to a private life. This extends to a reasonable amount of personal time at work. Don't go crazy, you are getting paid to do work. But the Act has always given you some right of communication while at work. It used to be that you can make and received personal phone calls or write letters. This has been extended now to cover emails. Again, it is a reasonable amount of time. Don't over do it.