Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Holds That Text Messages of Employees are Protected Under Privacy Rights Laws

According to the decision reached in the case of Quon v. Arch Wireless Oper. Co., Inc., No. 07-55282, (9th Cir. June, 18 2008), the Although it can be argued that this decision does not apply to private employers, similar standards for reasonable expectation of privacy may afford employees of private companies the same protection. The decision states that the Fourth Amendment protections applied even though the employer’s had provided warnings to employees that that there was no expectation of privacy on employer-owned devices. Until recently most decisions had held that employers may review employee’s emails. The court qualified its decision by stating that the department could have warned the employee when his account was going over limit and since the employee was responsible for the over limit fees extended more of a protection.