Can my boss reset my pc log on to access my emails without my permission?

Question

I have been off sick for a few days from work and I received a voicemail this morning from my manager saying that she was calling to ask my password so that she could check my emails. Where I work, a lot of correspondence is required via email to issue cases our consultants have submitted.

As far as I am aware, as long as the IT department have an email from myself or a senior management member ONLY, they can provide access to my email inbox to my manager but NOT reset my PC log on password.

Are there any websites that I can back this up with before going to senior management to make a complaint or is this actually allowed to happen?

Answer 1

Most of your case is probably going to need to be built around company policy. This is really the bottom line of how your company can (and can not) operate. In most companies with up to date business practices, they will have a policy that states that any thing you do and any correspondence you make while acting as an agent of the company belongs to the company and they can do what they want with your work/documents/email/whatever whenever they want. Our company policy specifically states that employees should have no expectation of privacy.

Unfortunately, State and Federal regulation isn't going to affect this situation much. The main exception would be if your company was covered by something like SOX (Sarbanes Oxley) or HIPAA. Those pieces of regulation change the situation a bit because your company is now expected to protect confidential data from unauthorized disclosure.

In closing, based upon the information you provided, it sounds like you need to check out your companies security policies. We have a policy that states that supervisors/managers aren't allowed to gain access to a person's computer, Internet records, email, etc. without reasonable suspicion of misuse and they have to go through the appropriate channels (Security Officer, Systems Admin, Privacy Officer, etc.). I would hope your company does too...

Answer 2

I don't know of any specific site to look on but you could try your Union website (if you are in a union) or maybe one of the sites for the bigger unions like PCS or GMB etc. I don't think they are allowed to do this but as you say you will need some evidence to back this up.

Good luck.