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May 04, 2005
Stopping the boss from reading your email
If you live in NSW, your boss will no longer be able to snoop on your private email, spy on you with a video camera, or fit you up with a tracking device - not without risking criminal charges.
The state's Workplace Surveillance Bill 2005, introduced today, will make it a criminal offence to take part in any form of covert surveillance of an employee, unless an employer can prove he had reasonable suspicion of wrong-doing.
"While some employers argue that this is necessary to protect their legitimate interests, employees expect that their private correspondence, like their private telephone calls or private conversations, should never be the subject of secret monitoring," NSW Attorney General Bob Debus said in a statement today.
This sort of protection should be available nationally, in our opinion. And then we need legislation to make it a criminal offence for anyone at your ISP to snoop on your email. Some of the higher profile members of Melb PC, for instance, suspect that their email may have been exposed to prying eyes.
Posted by cw at May 4, 2005 03:16 PM
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Comments
This is much needed legislation. The law seems to struggle with just what "reasonble" means though. As sentencing.typepad.com mused : "it is fun now to reason through what the reasonable minds of reasonable people might reasonably think qualifies as reasonable. (Of course, until we hear from courts, there is good reason to keep reasonable speculations about reasonable understandings of reasonableness within reason.)
Posted by: Sententia at May 4, 2005 10:38 PM