Your email is private, even at work. The appeals court has ruled that, under certain circumstances, email is indeed private:

“…Under Wednesday’s ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, employers that contract an outside business to transmit text messages can’t read them unless the worker agrees.”

link: SF court protects privacy of work communications

This ruling may be appealed. As it stands, the ruling has implications on issues of security and surveillance. Businesses will protest that this removes a means of protecting proprietary information and fosters additional data breaches. On the other hand, privacy advocates will be heartened that email has some of the legal protection afforded to snail mail.

Catherine Forsythe