E-mail Privacy

[Jon Allen Boone]

conca at handel.cs.colostate.edu (michael vincen conca) writes:
> this was summarized in a memo which was E-mailed to the employee.

  This should have been cc:'ed or bcc:'ed to the appropriate people.
Mistake #1!

> Yesterday, this employee was terminated.  He/she was allowed to gather
> their things and purge all of their personal files from the system.  Today,
> my boss asked if it would be possible to retrieve this employee's E-mail
> off of backup, find the memo, and print it out in case it was needed as 
> evidence in a possible court case.

  I didn't think that email was allowed as evidence in a court case,
due to the fairly simple method by which one could fake it!

> Now for the tough questions.
>         Is this legal?  Is this ethical?  If this person still worked
> here, I would immediately refuse.  But since they don't, do they still
> have any rights to their E-mail?  Right now, I am leaning towards refusing
> because I think a person's E-mail is theirs, regardless of their status
> with the organization.  Anyone have any other opinions on this?

  I'd say tell 'em you can't do it.  First, I'm under the impression
it would do them NO GOOD legally.  Secondly, there ought to be some
written policy which states: GROUP FOOS OPINION ABOUT OLD BACKUPED
FILES.  Certainly, if I had personal mail, whether from them or not, I
wouldn't want them to read it after I had left.  It seems intuitively
wrong.  After all, do you think that there is any inherrent difference
between private mail of someone who works there and private mail of
someone who doesn't?  You already said that you would have said "No"
if they still worked there.  How has the situation changed in an
important ETHICAL sense?  I don't think it has.  

	  Ultimately, the machines belong to someone and that someone
or their proxy will have to decide what the right thing to do is.
Until then, stone-wall'em - JUST SAY NO!




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