Legal Question in Telecomm Law in Hawaii
Email/Internet Privacy
What is the law regarding Email/Internet Privacy?
When is it okay to access a person's personal email account (i.e. yahoo, hotmail, etc) without his/her permission?
What about social gathering sites like MySpace? When is it okay to access his/her account w/o permission?
Background Info: A employee uses company time to access his personal email account and socialize on MySpace. However, the computer he uses isn't company property. It belongs to someone other than the employee. This employee was told not to use the computer during work several times.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Email/Internet Privacy
It sounds like you can prove the employee is violating your instructions to not use the computer during work hours; so you don't need to see the emails. You can get permission from the computer's owner to confirm for example that the employee's account information is in the computer and the browser history will show that it was used and for what. You don't need to see the emails themselves to fire the employee; so don't go there unless you have to and consult an attorney before you do.
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