Reference no: EM133451258

Case Study: In 2007, the plaintiff received an email that contained a pornographic video on the company's system he then forwarded it to his personal email account. Additionally, he sent an email to the original sender of the message (Clancy asking him to cease from sending any further messages with such content due to the company's strict policies During a routine audit, BC's Information Security Department came across the pornographic email that Myers had sent to his personal email account. As per BTC, Myer's termination was a result of his violation of the company's email policy. According to BTCL email policy, "Message content must always be professional", and prohibits the transmission of any messages that compromise such policy. BTC's Information Security Policy for Regulation 5-18 and Electronic Communications Standards policy, also prohibits the transmission of obscene, derogatory, profane otherwise offensive language or graphics. Under their "Privacy and Monitoring" Electronic Communications Standards BTC reserves the right to monitor all email on the company system. A daily Warning Notice of such policy is supplied to all employees when logging into company computers. Facts regarding the Privacy Act of 1974 The Privacy Act of 1974 was enacted to safeguard private information of Federal Employees from being disclosed by the Federal Government. Under the act, no information pertaining to an employee may be released before obtaining prior written consent of the employee. There are many exceptions to this procedure. Other employees of the agency may access the records of a particular worker on a need-to-know basis, if their position so requires. A court, civil or criminal law enforcement agency, Congress, the Census Bureau, or the National Archives may have access to an employee's records for a justifiable reason. Unless exempted under the Privacy Act, the information should be kept in a secure facility that guards against easy access by unauthorized people. Civil and criminal penalties can be imposed for breaches of trust.

Questions:

1. Per the definition of the "Invasion of Privacy" and "The Electronic Communications Privacy Act" of 1986, was Myer's privacy compromised by BTC? If so, why? If not, why?

2. Can an employees personal email account, not company email account, be randomly audited for technology security purposes if the employee chooses to log into their personal email on a work computer? Why or why not?

3. Let's pretend you are an Appeal officer charged to mediate grievances on employee separation. Mr. Myer's has decided to appeal the termination from his position at BTC. How would you rule on the situation? How did you come up with your decision based on what you know about the Privacy Act and how it can be applied to real situations in the workplace?