Work emails in the company’s email program – can the boss actually read the messages? And is he allowed to? Many employees ask themselves these questions. TECHBOOK got to the bottom of them.
Anyone who starts a new job usually receives an introduction to general company processes – a so-called onboarding – and in this context also an email address and inbox. Last but not least, this involves conducting work-related communication in the name of the company, which is usually also included in the domain ending. Most employees probably try to be professional anyway and express themselves that way in work emails. But if you make a mistake or write something “sensitive”, would the boss actually notice? In other words: Can the boss read work emails? The answer: yes. But whether he is allowed to do so depends on various factors.
Reading work emails – technically this is possible
“Technically, the admins can of course set it up to be able to look into mailboxes,” explains IT expert Faruk Gadzo, himself a network admin, when asked by TECHBOOK. And that’s not all. According to Gadzo, you can also preset that copies of work emails are automatically sent to the boss.
However: “Data protection is preset in the company software,” warns the expert. The curious employer would have to specifically contact the IT department with his concerns.
The legal situation is complex
Reading other people’s emails is in accordance § 206 of the Criminal Code (StGB) a “violation of postal or telecommunications secrecy” – and punishable. Violations of the law result in fines and even imprisonment.
But in a professional context it is a little more complicated. “Stiftung Warentest” covered the topic in its February 2021 issue. Accordingly, “monitoring of the work email account may be permissible in individual cases”. It depends on what is written in the employment contract. If it is stated here that the employee may only use company devices and accounts for business purposes, then the employer is theoretically allowed to carry out random checks. In short: He can read employees’ work emails. Because he would have no reason to expect anything private – after all, private use of the company’s hardware and software is prohibited.
Private use of work computers prohibited? Stick to it!
If he finds what he is looking for, it can quickly become a reason for termination. Because: “Employees who do private things during working hours are committing working time fraud. The employer pays even though he does not receive any benefits. “That justifies termination, even without notice – and even without warning,” writes “Stiftung Warentest”.
Also interesting: Can you distinguish legitimate emails from phishing?
Court ruling may set new standards
In practice it doesn’t always seem to be that easy. This is shown by a case from Romania that ended up in court in 2017. An employee there was fired because he used a messenger account for private purposes that he had created on behalf of the employer specifically for customer inquiries. Apparently the case was clear: the man had acted in breach of contract. Nevertheless, he sued against the termination – and was right.
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Details about this are in Council of Europe press room to read. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the employer had violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights by reading his employee’s messages. This guarantees the “right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence”. According to that German Trade Union Confederation This decision could generally set new standards. In any case, employees must always be informed very precisely about what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do with their work devices and channels.
“Anyone can read emails anyway”
Gagzo warns that anyone who is concerned about their privacy is using email as the wrong medium anyway. “The content travels unencrypted as plain text over various lines,” says the IT expert. “Everyone can read it.” As a rule, these are people you don’t even know personally. But according to Gadzo, employees in telecommunications companies can also “look into transmitted bytes and view email fragments.” Even if this is probably never done intentionally – it’s probably not a nice idea for email senders.
Gadzo’s tip: It’s better to send very private things via SMS. These are “pretty sealed off” and much more confidential. “Nobody intercepts what’s being sent around with their radio.”