Is my employer allowed to look at my email account?

Employees may be able to access their own personal email accounts, as well as company email accounts, on the same workplace system and there is usually no ban on a reasonable amount of access to your private emails at work, or on using your business email to send the occasional social message. It may be tempting to think that employers are not allowed to read your emails at all, however, this is not the case.

Under the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations, employers must have their employees’ consent if they wish to monitor business email accounts. This consent may be said to have been obtained if notice is given in the employment contract or employee handbook, or if a clear workplace policy is instituted and advertised by the employer.

A workplace policy or contract can regulate how much private use may be made of the business email system for example, and the length of time any information from your email account is stored by your employer. An employer should also state why monitoring is taking place and the sanctions that will be imposed if employees disregard the rules.

On the other hand, an employer can monitor business email use without their employees’ consent in a number of situations, according to the Regulations, so long as they have informed employees that emails may be monitored. For example, employers may create records in case a dispute arises, they may ensure compliance with legal rules, they may ensure customer care and they may seek to prevent crime.

However, these rules do not apply to the monitoring of a personal email account that it held with an outside provider and accessed from work. Additionally, an employer must take care not to read personal emails sent from a business account. If it appears that your personal emails have been read by your employer, without your express consent, you may wish to raise the matter as a grievance with them. If the matter remains unresolved, you could take legal advice from a solicitor who specialises in information technology law.

Finally, section 13 of the Data Protection Act allows you to claim compensation if you have not agreed to the way an employer uses personal information about you collected from your email account and this use causes you distress and injury.