2011
Ontario Court Decision Means Internet/Email Policies are Essential
It seems that we scooped the Court of Appeal!
Last week, I posted a revised version of a column I wrote 11 years ago regarding Internet and E-mail policies. I used to say that these policies should not be necessary, but I have changed my tune and I think they are now a must. Why? To eliminate any misconceived notion that an employee might have that they have a right to privacy in what they do on the employer’s computers.
In 2001, the Federal Privacy Commissioner of the day (long-since disgraced in a scandal) wrote that he thought that employees have a fundamental, inherent right to privacy in the workplace, including private e-mail. Hogwash, I have always said. (See my column of May 1, 2001.) What you do on the employer’s computer is the employer’s business.
However, while the legal system has not quite adopted the approach of the Privacy Commissioner, the Criminal Code does have a prohibition against intercepting private communications. A “private communication” is one where the person has an objectively reasonable expectation that it is private.
My new approach to the issue is to advise that the Internet and E-mail policy make it clear that whatever you do on the work computer is the employer’s business. There can be no objective, or even subjective, expectation of privacy in that regard.
On March 22, 2011, the Ontario Court of Appeal released a decision involving child pornography on a teacher’s laptop. The Court found, as part of its decision, that the lack of a policy making it clear that there was no privacy in what happened on the computer was a factor.
If there was ever a good reason to have a current Computer Use, Internet and E-mail policy, this is it.
