if an employer provides and pays for phones for his employees how can they be monitored?

Full question:

if an employer provides and pays for Blackberrys for his employees for business email use while on the road, and if the employee consents in writing, is the employer allowed to program the Blackberrys to blind carbon copy him on all the employees emails without violating privacy laws. I understand email monitoring is legal in a office computer environment, but the blackberry would be a wireless device like a phone. The employer provided blackberry would be a company tool, not a personal convenience. The employee would be expected not to normally use it for personal reasons. Can the employer monitor these communications legally in this way with a signed consent? The phone numbers dialed on the blackberry are always reported on the phone bills, obviously the phone conversations are not. Please advise if we can do this and not violate privacy or telecommunications laws.

• Category: Privacy
• Date: 04/07/2025
• State: Illinois

Answer:

We cannot give legal advice. The following is not a substitute for the advice of a local attorney. But we hope the information will be useful.

The US Supreme Court has made a first ruling on the type of issue you ask about.

From link below: "The ruling essentially maintains the status quo of allowing employers to implement policies preventing employees from using company communication equipment for personal use."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/17/court-backs-privacy-of-texter-but-not-all-workers/?page=1

See also:

http://www.infolawgroup.com/2010/06/articles/workplace-privacy/quon-us-supreme-court-rules-against-privacy-on-employerissued-devices/

However, your proposal is even more distinct because you indicate that your up-front policy will be to not allow personal communications and/or to notify the employee that every transmission will automatically be bcc'd to the employer for review. If you have the employee sign a statement indicating that this is the policy and the employee agrees to it, then you are on very safe ground. You may want to broadcast a monthly message to all employees reiterating the policy. This way no one can suggest they forgot.

The way you get onto shaky ground is by monitoring without telling the employee. Especially if your policy or practice is that it is ok for reasonable personal use. If you have an up front, signed policy, you could even allow reasonable personal use, as long as the employee understood and consented in writing that every message sent would potentially or actually be monitored. That way you could let "please pick up the kids today," or "im going to be an hour late getting home" slide, but if things that were actually objectionable started cropping up, you could step in with a warning or whatever. Or you could allow zero personal use. But are you going to fire people for minor infractions? These are things you have to think about.

Whatever you decide, have a clear, honest written policy, and have the employ sign it.