Employee Privacy -- Certiorari Granted

On December 14, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in City of Ontario v. Quon, 08-1332. In this case, the Court will address important issues involving employee privacy, the workplace, and technology.

Quon deals with employer-owned pagers used to send text messages. The employer policies in question clearly established that the employer owned the pagers and that employees should have no expectation of privacy when using them. Despite these policies, supervisors told employees that their pagers would not be audited so long as they agreed to pay any overage charges. In fact, the employer had followed this informal policy, and had done so regarding Quon on at least three occasions. Because of this informal policy, and despite the formal policy, the Ninth Circuit upheld the district court's grant of summary judgment, holding that Quon had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his text messages and that the search in question was unreasonable as a matter of law.

To be sure, Quon will only directly relate to public employers and other entities subject to Constitutional restraint. Nonetheless, the Court's decision in Quon should provide much needed guidance to all employers regarding employee privacy, the workplace, and technology.

Click here for a copy of the Ninth Circuit's decision.