Justices will determine privacy of government workers' messages

[Caitlin.ann]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When Ontario, California, Police Sgt. Jeff Quon used his city-issued text messaging pager to exchange hundreds of personal messages, some of a "sexually explicit" nature, did he have a right to expect those messages would be kept private?
The Supreme Court decided Monday that it will determine whether a police officer has a "reasonable expectation" of privacy on his official wireless two-way text-messaging pager.
The justices accepted a pair of appeals on this free-speech and privacy dispute, and will hear oral arguments in the spring.
At issue is how far a government employer may go to monitor the private communications of its workers when they believe that the use of such equipment is being abused.

Link (http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/12/14/scotus.messaging/index.html)

[Shaedema]

If the device an employee is using is owned by the employer.....then they can check it at will. If it is your own then they shouldn't be able to check it.

But I suppose that is the easiest answer. :smileroll

[Cunae]

I worked for the feds for 12 yrs and they spied on everything we were doing. We were monitored for inappropriate internet use (essentially, shopping) inappropriate email use (sending non-work related links) and actually work on each keyboard... inappropriate use or research of social security numbers... zero tolerance when it comes to celebrities, higher ups, coworkers and relatives. All of that was ok but monitoring actual *keystrokes* then counting them, to determine work output was a little much. They also reserved the right to listen in to phonecalls for "quality" assurance."

[watersprite]

If you are at work, you have no right to what you do on company, in this instance, the taxpayers, time. You need to be working, not on a personal internet journey.