Supreme Court OKs Employer Text Message Search

The Supreme Court has upheld the search of a police officer's personal messages on a government-owned pager, saying it did not violate his constitutional rights even though some of the texts were sexually explicit.

The court was unanimous Thursday in reversing a federal appeals court ruling that sided with the Ontario, Calif., SWAT team officer.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court that the officer, Sgt. Jeff Quon, could not assume "that his messages were in all circumstances immune from scrutiny."

But Kennedy said the court purposely avoided a broader ruling about employees' expectations of privacy when using equipment provided by their employers because of rapid and unpredictable changes in technology.

The Ontario department discovered many personal messages, including some that were said to be sexually explicit, when it decided to audit text message usage to see whether SWAT team officers were using their pagers too often for personal reasons.

[tsigili]

If you want privacy, pay for your own phone, and don't expect to use the boss's nickle.

[johndevinejr]

I was in business for 20 years with 50 employees. I told every employee, in writing, that the company email was for company business. It belonged to the company. Any and all emails could be read by management and that I knew all email passwords.

If they wanted to send personal emails they could use Yahoo, or Gmail or anything they wanted.

We never had a problem.

[jtdev1]

I'd love to see what the Judge's texts look like...

I bet if we peeked into them, this ruling would change very quickly.

[bobnjersey]

[Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court that the officer, Sgt. Jeff Quon, could not assume "that his messages were in all circumstances immune from scrutiny." ]

this is just another example of the erosion of individual rights ... and the allowance for the subjugation of those rights to 'entities' ... for which the constitution was intended to protect against.

[johndevinejr]

Nonsense, employee's have no privacy rights to use company email for personal messages any more than they have a right to write personal letters on company letterhead.

Why would any rational person think for a second that they can use other peoples property in any way they choose. You can't take the company truck and do whatever you like with it. Why would you think it's ok to text your BFF with a company phone, probably on company time? With the company paying for the use of the phone and the cost of the text messages.