can my employer log in to my personal email?
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can my employer log in to my personal email?
I have logged in to my personal
email from my work computer
before. New Link Destination
day I received a
mortification from google that
someone else logged in to my gmail
account. They gave me the city and
state along with the ip address of
where and when it took place and
the ip address is from my employer
at our corporate office.
Asked on September 14, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Alaska
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
While this area of the law is not 100% settled or determined (i.e. it is still evolving) the general rule is that an employer may read emails sent or received on their systems or machines (through their server; on employer computers; etc.) but cannot access your account for anything not sent/received on their systems. Basically, they can read the "traffic" going across their systems or equipment (since those are THEIR systems and equipment, and they can access them, control what they are used for, etc.), but nothing beyond that.
If the employer has gone beyond that, you may wish to contract the police, the state AG, and/or the federal FTC, but will face the hurdle of proving it was the employer and not, say, some coworker doing this on his/her own, without authorization or instruction from the employer--i.e. proving the wrongdoing and the identity of the wrongdoer may be difficult, unless the employer refers to, produces a copy of, etc. a personal email.
More practically: from a non-work computer, change your password. And do not log on again to personal email from a work computer or system, which is something that you should not be doing anyway--use your own phone, tablet, etc. to do this.
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