News and Media

With the Right Policies in Place, Employees Cannot Have an Expectation of Privacy in Text Messages Sent Through Company-Owned Equipment

In City of Ontario v. Quon (U.S. Supreme Court, June 17, 2010), Jeff Quon was a police officer with the City of Ontario. The City provided Quon and other officers with pagers that were contracted through an independent provider, Arch Wireless. As part of that contract, the pagers permitted a certain number of characters to be sent each month. The City also had in place a Computer Usage Internet and Email Policy stating, "the City reserved the right to monitor and log all network activity, including email and Internet use, with or without notice. Users should have no expectation of privacy when using these resources.” Although the policy did not specifically cite text messages as part of the Policy, the City advised its employees that it would treat the pager text messages in the same manner as it treated emails. This assertion was communicated orally, and thereafter reiterated in a written summary of the meeting during which the statement was made…more