Does your boss own your text messages?

If your boss pays your mobile phone bill, does he have a right to read your text messages? According to an LA court, the answer is no – not without the employee’s consent.

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?

Recently Published

“Apple will only sell 100,000 of their headsets in the first year” Really?

BGR reports a TrendForce estimate that Apple will sell 100k units of their new headset when released and says “but that’s still a big...

The BlackBerry Movie: Worth a look, but it’s heavy on fiction

I went to see the BlackBerry movie last night here in Dubai. I was astonished to find the movie theatre almost full, apart from...

Question: When is the only time a traffic jam is good news in the UK?

Answer: When you're sitting in the back of an Uber and you need reliable mobile signal. Boom! Sad, isn't it, dear reader? Travel all around...

Ah yes, an S23 with a BlackBerry Bold Keyboard: Exactly what I (think) I need

I was playing with Midjourney, the AI/photo generation service and I asked it to show me what a Samsung S23 would look like with...

It’s ok, your moon photos aren’t fake, they are just enhanced – quite a bit

Have you taken a photo of the moon recently? I almost did, the other day, when I spotted a fabulous moment here in Dubai....

Don’t move! You’ll jinx it! This looks like a tiny bit of innovation in the mobile world

It has been quite a while since I’ve seen anything in the mobile industry that’s caused me to want to write much. Just look...