Do you have a right to privacy on a work cellphone?
The Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the question of whether employees have a legal right to privacy when using cellphones provided by their employer. It stems from a case where a police officer complained about his chief reading text messages from his work phone.
Jeff Quon had used a pager device (which could both send and receive text messages) to exchange “hundreds” of messages, some sexually explicit, with both his wife and his girlfriend — which certainly explains his keen interest in privacy.
The force in Ontario, California subscribed to a service plan allowing 25,000 characters to be sent or received per month on each device. Officers are then expected to pay the excess fees if they go over the limit. As Quon had done this repeatedly, a supervisor asked the chief for permission to review his activity.
According to the force, there is a clearly stated policy that such equipment is not to be used for personal benefit, and that users should have no expectation of privacy when using it. Quon maintains he was unaware of this policy. A federal appeals court ruled that the review of the messages, which was not part of a criminal investigation, violated his legal right to privacy.
The Supreme Court case will consider two specific legal questions:
- What rights do firms have to access data from cellphones used by staff?
- What duty do cellphone networks have to inform users when supplying details of their messaging to their employers?
On the former question, the court would have several possible options: it could decide privacy rights in such situations are either automatic or non-existent, but it could also decide that employers can only access records where they have a stated policy about user privacy.
It’s important to note that any ruling would only have immediate legal effect over the policies of government agencies. However, it could certainly influence both policies and court verdicts in cases involving private
The Supreme Court will now investigate the case in detail and carefully consider both the specifics and the overall legal principles at stake. Which is fortunate, because if you asked me I’d just say that if you really want privacy, buy your own damn phone.
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