The decision comes as part of a case, reported by the LA Times that saw a policeman take his employer to court after police department staff read his text messages.

After the policeman exceeded the monthly text allowance paid for by his employer, the police department asked its service provider to turn over records of the contents of his messages.

Wrong move, said the judge, who decided the service provider had breached federal Stored Communications Act, and that the text messages were covered by the 4th amendment. In short, the employer didn’t have a right to look at the texts without the employee’s say so, or without a policy in place warning staff their messages were being monitored.

Does anyone know what laws apply here in the UK?

Lee Kun-hee has been at the head of Samsung for over 20 years now, so there’s no underestimating how big this is for the company. That said, if local press reports are anything to go by, it looks like Lee won’t be relinquishing his hold on the company just yet: according to The International Herald Tribune:

But there was little doubt among many observers about the Lee family’s ability to continue controlling Samsung. The family runs the conglomerates through a network of loyal executives and circular financing that locks the subsidiaries to each other.

Plus ca change.