Legal Question in Technology Law in Arizona

Company email "privacy"

There's been a few court decisions about company access to the email accounts they provide for employees. I don't know of any involving encrypted files, but I don't see why that would make a difference.

The answer's not definite yet, but it seems to be going toward the position that it's the employer's account and they have no obligation to let employees use it for personal purposes or secrets.

The above does not constitute legal opinion and is offered for the purposes of discussion only. The law differs in every jurisdiction, and you should not rely on any opinion except that of an attorney you have retained, who has a professional duty to advise you after being fully informed of all the pertinent facts and who is familiar with the applicable law.

It's most likely "legal" but what's the real issue for you?

Have you already had some of your e-mail (which you encrypted) decrypted and have you been fired or something?

Why were you encrypting the mail anyway? What (really!) was inthe e-mail message ... criticism of the boss or company? juicy love-lettersort of stuff? Salary discussions? Information which YOU were not supposedto have? Or is this just a theoretical discussion asking if you'll be saferby using encryption?

I could envision a situation where an employee who'd encrypted all his email might be brought into a boss's office and told to divulge the key immediately(so boss could read the mail) or else be fired (or otherwise disciplined). I don't think employee would even have a right to refuse andstill keep his job; this could well be legal grounds for dismissal in most stateswithout violating privacy laws or the Constitution. That's one obvious way for boss to crack the encryption. How elsedo you think Big Brother might be able to decrypt your e-mail, anyway? A decentencryption scheme should make guessing virtually impossible.Or has this already happened?

Attorney At Law

Yes. They can also read anything you put on a company computer.