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Where is the Line on Email Privacy?
"It could be interpreted that the company is looking for evidence of impropriety or dishonesty on the part of the prior employee, but there was never a question before the sudden termination to suggest anything out of the ordinary was ongoing. I am such an admin. I am ready to allow access to the company requesting it. Several details are bugging me though. First, I have never been asked for access to any other terminated employees' email. Second, I recently inquired about preserving email for a different employee and got the short answer that all company ties had to be completely terminated. Third, the server is not owned by the company in question. I'm completely (other than the following item) independent of the company. Fourth, it's my relative's account.
I've simply not responded so far, but how far do I go? I'm not an ISP and I don't have agreements with the users. I'm also not the IT dept.
Has anyone else had anything remotely similar, and if so; how did you respond?"
I work for a shared website hosting company, our policy is that the entity paying for the site and the mailboxes owns them, in this case the company.
How they choose to use the mail boxes is their business. Trying to override your customers idea of correct policy towards their staff will only cost you their business and the resulting bad reputation will hurt you.
My sympathies if its your relative, you could always lie and say that the box was deleted when the employee left.
NOT here in Brasil. E-mail is by law on par with telephonical communications, so tapping without judicial warrant is a crime. Total privacy is expected.
My personal policy in those cases is: the mailbox was empty at the time the account was blocked. All e-mail to it was bounced since.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Looks like the courts in Finland just upheld a legislation barring an employer from reading employee e-mails. Couldn't find an announcement in English, nor are the translation tools too good, so you'll have to take my word for it. So they're faring well.
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
Specifically, whoever paid for the accounts is the owner. Assuming that the company is paying you to host the site/mail accounts, they own them all and 'sublet' the accounts to their employees. Once that employee has vacated, the account is yours again.
--trb
No, no, no, to the law only matters whose communication it is.
Fine, but that doesn't change my point.
So, my mailbox in the company account is mine. It's my communication.
It might be, but it might be someone you have never met trying to contact the company to get a problem resolved, order something, etc.
My point is and was that you can't reasonably assume that all mail that comes to someone's e-mail account at work is an attempt to communicate with them and not an attempt to communicate with the company. If bdp@cryptic.com is answered by a guy named Bruce for a while and then subsequently given to someone named Betty, it might be a case where she's getting his personal communications (e.g. he's Bruce Donald Parsly and she's Betty Due Purdy), or it might be the company's (e.g., they both handle support for the company's Best Darned Product (tm) and he's just been promoted to janitor, leaving her stuck withall the support mail).
The point? You can't tell for sure without more information.
-- MarkusQ