On June 17, 2010, the United States Supreme Court unanimously decided City of Ontario v. Quon, holding that the city’s review of an employee’s text messages on an employer-issued device was a reasonable search under the Fourth Amendment.  The City issued pagers and advised police officers that text messages would fall under the City’s policy as public information and would be eligible for auditing.  Quon and others exceeded their allotted number of texts, but claimed that a supervisor had informed them that their messages would not be audited as long as the officers paid for any overage charges.  An audit to determine why the officers were exceeding their limits revealed Quon, while on duty, was using his employer-issued pager to send sexually explicit text messages.  The Supreme Court unanimously held that the city’s review of the text messages was a reasonable search under the Fourth Amendment.  However, the Court declined to address the privacy expectations of employees when using employer-provided communications devices.  Quon Opinion

It is important to understand your right to privacy when it comes to the workplace, especially in this technological driven society.  The Quon decision suggests that employers should exercise good judgment in monitoring employee use of the employer’s computer or communications facilities, whether the employment is in the public or private sector.  Employers must establish the level of privacy expectations with a policy that covers all the technologies given to employees.  Employers may be at risk if they delve into the content of messages without a work-related purpose for the investigation.  The Quon decision provides that employers must have a legitimate, work-related objectives for the search.

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