Is your employer allowed to have access to your email account in order to read your emails?

Answer 1

Employers are letting you use their equipment and Internet access and have the right to regulate that any way they want.

If they provide you with a company email account, they have right to read your work emails.

If you are accessing a personal Web-based email account, they might be able to read that if they are using sophisticated tools to monitor traffic on their network.

Best advice: Do your work stuff at work and your personal stuff at home.

Answer 2

This depends upon what email system you are speaking of.

If the email system is the companies email system, they yes they have the full right to monitor your email. These systems are put in place and maintained with company funds and therefore any data contained with in them is deemed as company property.

Now.. if the email system you are speaking of is a non-company owned system, then they have no right. There is a caveat to this however, if you access your private email using the company network the company has every right to monitor and restrict this access. Again, if you use company equipment to access, then the company has rights to monitor the content there of.

Long story short... if you are worried about privacy, don't use someone else's computer equipment to access the private messages.

Answer 3

Yes. Absolutely and positively. And anything said in an e-mail sent on the companies equipment or network is the property of the company and can be used to fire, sue, or bring criminal charges against you.

Unlike a private, home e-mail account, a company account is the property of the company. They have the right to monitor the e-mail to prevent people stealing company secrets and e-mailing them out, using company equipment for illegal purposes (spamming, harrassing, etc), distributing (or even viewing) porn, or wasting company time on personal e-mails.

So remember that anything you say in an e-mail from work is recorded and can usually be recovered for at least the next 15 years. It can be used as grounds to fire you. I see it happen frequently...

Answer 4

This is a personal decision that should be decided on between a husband and wife. However, if you feel that you HAVE to have these passwords and if you feel that you HAVE to use them, then you obviously have no trust between the two of you and i have to question whether or not your marriage will even last. If a couple wants to share their passwords and decide on that TOGETHER, i'm all for it. But if one is made to give their spouse their password or if it's demanded of them or if a spouse feels that they have to check their SO's email and facebook, then i don't really think they should be together at all. You have reason not to trust him. He's really done nothing but deceive you lately. But do you really think snooping on him is the way to build that trust back up? If anything, he'll just resent you for needing to snoop on him. This is pretty much a no-win situation.

Answer 5

Do employers need to let you know they're accessing your email account

Answer 6

Yup, and many do. The computer belongs to your employer. The e-mail service is paid for by your employer. Your time while working on the computer is paid for by the employer Use your e-mails at work as if your employer were reading them, because they may not be all the time, but they are entitiled to.

Answer 7

They can access anything that is done on their computers with their server. However, companies won't normally monitor or check this unless they have received complaints or they suspect something is amiss. They can track every website you've gone to, what you've downloaded, if anything, and every keystroke you've ever made. "Clearing" cookies or files does not clear them from the hard drive memory. They can backtrack to the time before you "cleared" them. That is a myth that gives people a false sense of security.

Answer 8

It depends upon where you live. Europe has much stricter laws on personal freedoms than the USA, despite our bleating about freedom and democracy. If you use a company resource in the USA, they usually have permission to do whatever they like with the information, including firing you for using company resources for personal use.

I am not a lawyer. If this is really important, SEE A LAWYER. Don't take my half-baked opinion for legal advice.

Answer 9

Only if blatantly outlined in your employment contract. At our company, when an applicant signs the papers to start working for us, it is clearly outlined in the paperwork that we retain all rights to emails, regardless of sender. Basically we state that every email message is ours to read if we so desire. If that is not clearly stated when you are hired, then no, your employer does not have a right to read personal email in your office.

Answer 10

All e-mails that originate from an employers computer are the property of that company. IT managers have inputted certain "keywords" in order to filter through employee e-mail. Yes they have the right to read your e-mail.