Supermarket giant Morrisons has been told by the Court of Appeal that it is liable for the actions of a malicious insider who breached data on 100,000 employees, setting up a potential hefty class action pay-out.. An original High Court ruling last year said the UK chain was “vicariously liable” for the actions of former employee Andrew Skelton — a disgruntled internal auditor who published the details, which included NI numbers, birth dates and bank account data. The link for this article located at InfoSecurity is no longer available. . Morrisons grapples with accountability following unauthorized access to worker information, igniting fears of a potential collective lawsuit compensation.. Morrisons Liability Case, Insider Threat, Data Breach, Employee Information, Class Action Risks. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
In a ruling that could affect enterprises' privacy and security practices, the New Jersey Supreme Court last week ruled that an employer can not read email messages sent via a third-party email service provider -- even if the emails are accessed during work hours from a company PC.. According to news reports, the ruling upheld the sanctity of attorney-client privilege in electronic communications between a lawyer and a nursing manager at the Loving Care Agency. After the manager quit and filed a discrimination and harassment lawsuit against the Bergen County home health care company in 2008, Loving Care retrieved the messages from the computer's hard drive and used them in preparing its defense. The court found the company's policy regarding email use to be vague, noting it allows "occasional personal use." "The policy does not address personal accounts at all," the decision said. "The policy does not warn employees that the contents of such emails are stored on a hard drive and can be forensically retrieved. "Under all of the circumstances, we find that Stengart [Marina Stengart, the nursing manager] could reasonably expect that emails she exchanged with her attorney on her personal, password-protected, Web-based email account, accessed on a company laptop, would remain private," wrote Chief Justice Stuart Rabner in the decision, which upholds an appeals court ruling last year. The link for this article located at Dark Reading is no longer available. . The New Jersey Supreme Court declared that companies are prohibited from viewing personal email accounts, reinforcing the protection of attorney-client confidentiality in correspondence.. Employee Privacy, Digital Communication, Email Rights. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
New guidelines that suggest staff may get greater protection against employers snooping on their e-mail and internet use were greeted with concern by industry on Friday. The guidelines on staff surveillance have been set for government departments and agencies. They suggest . . . . New guidelines that suggest staff may get greater protection against employers snooping on their e-mail and internet use were greeted with concern by industry on Friday. The guidelines on staff surveillance have been set for government departments and agencies. They suggest ministerial support for the Information Commission, which is revising a code restricting companies' rights to snoop. The link for this article located at Financial Times is no longer available. . Updated regulations suggest improved safeguards for worker digital privacy concerning employer surveillance of internet usage.. Employee Rights, E-Privacy, Data Protection, Staff Surveillance, Privacy Guidelines. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Employers' bodies are more optimistic about the workability of the government's workplace e-mail privacy code, but deep misgivings remain. The Privacy at Work conference hosted by the information commissioner last week brought employers and employee representatives together in a bid to . . . . Employers' bodies are more optimistic about the workability of the government's workplace e-mail privacy code, but deep misgivings remain. The Privacy at Work conference hosted by the information commissioner last week brought employers and employee representatives together in a bid to thrash out what should go in the final code, which specifies the permitted level of monitoring for staff e-mails and the internet use. Susannah Haan, legal adviser at the Confederation of British Industry, said, "The information commissioner said they hadn't appreciated all the risks to employers such as defamation and the inadvertent formation of contracts if workers use company e-mails and it is attributed to the company. We are pleased they have acknowledged that but we will have to see how far the code will shift." The link for this article located at CW360 is no longer available. . Employers' bodies are more optimistic about the workability of the government's workplace e-mail pri. employers', bodies, optimistic, about, workability, government's, workplace, e-mail. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Starting today employers can read workers' email without their consent, but heavyweights including the IoD want changes From Tuesday, new regulations give employers the power to eavesdrop on the email communications of their staff, a legal shift . . . . Starting today employers can read workers' email without their consent, but heavyweights including the IoD want changes From Tuesday, new regulations give employers the power to eavesdrop on the email communications of their staff, a legal shift that has been welcomed by businesses, but condemned as a breach of the right to privacy by civil liberty groups. The new Lawful Business Practices Regulations -- part of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act -- gives bosses the all clear to read the private communications of staff without the consent of correspondents. The link for this article located at ZDNet is no longer available. . As of today, companies have the authority to access employees' emails without requiring their approval, igniting debates over personal privacy.. Email Monitoring, Privacy Breach, Workplace Policy, Employee Rights, Legal Regulation. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
A group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced a bill today that would ban companies from secretly monitoring employees' electronic communications. The bill wouldn't prohibit companies from snooping, but would require them to disclose their monitoring practices to employees when they are hired . . . . A group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced a bill today that would ban companies from secretly monitoring employees' electronic communications. The bill wouldn't prohibit companies from snooping, but would require them to disclose their monitoring practices to employees when they are hired and to update them on an annual basis. . A cross-party initiative seeks to prohibit covert surveillance in the workplace by mandating companies to inform employees about their monitoring policies.. Employee Rights, Monitoring Legislation, Workplace Privacy. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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