Can an Employer Monitor Your Email?

You recently discovered that your employer has been monitoring your email for some time and is using something you privately relayed to a coworker against you. Can an employer monitor your email without you knowing, or is this unlawful? 

The answer depends on a few factors. If you think your employer may have violated your rights, speaking with an employment attorney in California may be worthwhile. 

How Employment Attorneys Assist Workers Facing Rights Violations 

As a California worker, you are entitled to certain rights and protections that your employer cannot legally violate. You also have the right to report potential violations without repercussions. Employment attorneys help workers understand their legal options for holding their employers accountable for misconduct and upholding their rights. 

These legal professionals assist workers with everything from gathering evidence for claims to filing claims with California CRD and navigating each step of the legal process. If you are considering pursuing a case against your employer or just want to talk about your options, meeting with employment attorneys may be a good first step. 

Can an Employer Legally Monitor Your Email in California? 

Your employer monitoring your email may feel like a huge invasion of your privacy. There are many scenarios when doing so would violate an employee’s privacy rights and California’s surveillance laws. But there are other scenarios in which an employer would be perfectly within their rights to access an employee’s email and hold them accountable for what they say in private. 

When Workplace Email Monitoring Is Generally Lawful

California workers generally have reduced expectations of privacy for devices that are owned by the employer and accounts that are company-managed. This means that an employer can generally monitor an employee’s email in all of the following scenarios:

• When the employee is logged in on company devices
• When the employee is using a company-issued email account on a personal device 
• When the employer sought written consent from the employee to monitor their email 
• When the employer has installed tracking software on the employee’s computer with the employee’s consent to track work activities 

Company-issued emails are not usually protected under privacy laws. You should take caution when writing emails that your employer may not approve of. Only use your company email for business purposes, and avoid sending any personal emails or communications to coworkers that you would not want your employer to see. 

When Email Monitoring in the Workplace May Be Unlawful  

Employers are not all-powerful, and certain employer email monitoring laws are in place to prevent total control over employee communications. These are a few scenarios in which California workplace email monitoring may not be lawful: 

• The employee has a reasonable expectation of privacy: Maybe the company has policies in place that suggest that workers can expect a reasonable level of privacy on email accounts issued by the employer. 
• The employer has specifically told workers that their emails are private: Perhaps an employer wants workers to believe that their emails are private so that they communicate more freely about workplace issues or concerns. If an employer told you that your work email was private and they would not be monitoring it, yet they did so anyway, this could be unlawful. 
• The employee is using a personal email account: Employers may not legally be able to access a worker’s private email account, even if the worker has that account logged in on a company computer. However, this can vary depending on the company’s policies and other factors. 
• The email monitoring is discriminatory: If an employer is going to monitor workers’ email, they should not single out workers who belong to a certain protected class, as this could be considered discrimination. 

How Can Employers Use Information Obtained Through Email Monitoring?

Can an employer monitor your email? They can in certain scenarios, especially if you are using work equipment or accounts. However, they cannot use the information they obtain through email monitoring for illicit purposes. 

For example, perhaps you used your work email to send a message to a coworker announcing your pregnancy. Your employer saw the message and informed you two days later that you were being laid off. There could be a reasonable assumption that the layoff decision was based on your pregnancy announcement, which would be discriminatory. 

Or maybe you used your work email to send a confidential message to HR about a medical condition for which you need an accommodation. Your employer may not lawfully be able to seek out private medical details that you would otherwise not be required to disclose to them. However, the lines can become blurred quickly if you send the message through a company email account, and your employer is conducting general monitoring and not specifically looking for private information. 

What To Do if Your Employer Has Violated Your Workplace Privacy 

If your employer read your emails after you had a reasonable expectation of privacy that they would not do so, consult an employment attorney about your options. They can explain how workplace surveillance laws apply to your situation and whether you may have a case against your employer. 

In some cases, you may have the right to take legal action against your employer to seek damages. But this right depends on the specific details of your employer’s violation and how the invasion of privacy negatively impacted you. 

Keep in mind that California is an at-will employment state. Your employer does not need specific reasons to fire you. Therefore, if you believe they found information in your email that led to your firing, such as evidence of misconduct, you may not have a case for job reinstatement. However, if the reason they fired you was discriminatory or retaliatory, you may still have a case. 

Seek Legal Guidance From D.Law

Can an employer monitor your email? Understanding workplace surveillance laws can feel overwhelming, but it is important for upholding your privacy rights as an employee. If you believe your employer unlawfully accessed your email or violated surveillance laws in other ways, our attorneys at D.Law would like to hear your case. 

Contact us today at 818-275-5799 to request a legal consultation.