Email snooping "breach of human rights"

[Alpine]

Hey, you, get out of my inbox

FIRMS THAT regularly monitor employees' emails could be abusing the human rights of their staff, a firm has warned.


Mark Hughes, MD of Proofpoint, said that in a survey it conducted it found that 38 per cent of corporations use a so-called "corporate snoop" to read email, while 60 per cent regularly audit outbound mail.

So if you're leaking something to the INQ, be extra careful.

Hughes said that while it's OK to monitor outbound email, "clandestine Big Brother voyeurism" is illegal. Companies have to tell staff that they're monitoring messages and why. As many as 44 per cent of UK companies could be breaking the law.

Hughes' assertion was backed by lawyer Nick Tsatsas at Michael Simkins LLP. He said laws governing snooping include he Human Rights Act 1998, the Data Protection Act 1998, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, and the Telecommunications Regulations 2000. Unless firms tell staff when, how and why they're monitoring email they're breaching human rights, Tsatsas said.

The INQuirer