Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!hoss!hoss.unl.edu!riddle
From: riddle@hoss.unl.edu (Michael H. Riddle)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: hacker = computer criminal
Message-ID: <1990Oct04.173551.606@hoss.unl.edu>
Date: 4 Oct 90 17:35:51 GMT
References: <4761@bone25.UUCP> <69148@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <20225:Oct319:48:5690@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1990Oct4.031131.2296@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
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Organization: University of Nebraska, Computing Resource Center
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In <1990Oct4.031131.2296@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> gl8f@astsun7.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) writes:

>In article <20225:Oct319:48:5690@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:

>> What's wrong with recording what goes on under your own roof?

>I believe Epson America is going to find out in court, real soon now.
>They had a manager who read all of his employee's email, including
>mail with rude comments about the manager that the employees thought
>was confidential.

My understanding of employment/labor law is that employees have almost no
legitimate expectation of privacy in the workplace.  Unless Epson created
such an expectation, there just wasn't any such thing as "private" mail on
the system installed, operated, and paid for by the company for company
business.
 
Whether there was a moral expectation of privacy is another issue, one
which I think is much more favorable to the employee, but . . . .

It's too bad that Ms. Shoar's case is "cluttered" with the
employer/employee problem, since I think all of us agree that we need some
good judicial precedent and construction of email privacy rights.
 
(A final note.  I may be wrong, but I thought the supervisor ran across
the email while looking into some trouble with the system, as opposed to
"eavesdropping," but I may be wrong on this.)

--
riddle@hoss.unl.edu                  |  "I've been going to school for
riddle@crchpux.unl.edu               |  so long that it ought to be     
mike.riddle@f27.n285.z1.fidonet.org  |  obvious they can't teach me and
Sysop on 1:285/27 @ Fidonet          |  therefore aren't responsible."