With technology playing such an important role in our lives, especially at work, it is important to understand what is and what is not considered “private” in the workplace. The following article attempts to shed light on some of the frequently asked questions and answers workers have regarding electronic privacy in the workplace.

Is electronic-mail (email) private? What about voice-mail?

In most cases, “no.” If an email system is used at your company, the employer owns it and is allowed to review its contents. Messages sent within the company as well as those that are sent from your computer to an external company/individual can be subject to monitoring by your employer. This includes web-based email accounts such as Yahoo and Gmail as well as instant messages. The same holds true for voice-mail systems. In general, employees should not assume that these activities are not being monitored and are private.

When I delete messages from my computer are they still in the system?

Yes. Electronic and voice-mail systems retain messages in memory even after they have been deleted. Although it appears they are erased, they are often permanently "backed up" on magnetic tape, along with other important data from the computer system.

My employer's electronic mail system has an option for marking messages as "private." Are those messages protected?

In most cases, the answer is “no.” Many electronic mail systems have this option, but it does not guarantee your messages are kept confidential. An exception is when an employer's written electronic mail policy states that messages marked "private" are kept confidential. Even in this situation, however, there may be exceptions.

What about encrypted messages?

Some employers use encryption to protect the privacy of their employees' electronic mail. Encryption involves scrambling the message at the sender's terminal, then unscrambling the message at the terminal of the receiver. This ensures the message is read only by the sender and his or her intended recipient. While this system prevents co-workers and industrial "spies" from reading your electronic mail, your employer may still have access to the unscrambled messages.

In summary, because your company owns both the email and voice-mail systems at work they have the right to monitor their usage. Therefore, you should never assume any email or voice-mail you receive/send while at work is “private.” As a result, you should be very careful about what information you send and receive electronically on any company computer.

The author of this article can be reached via email at Justice360@muslimcongress.org. For more information about Justice360, visit http://www.muslimcongress.org/360.

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