EU court: bosses can read employee's private messages.

• Position: PRIVACY - Brief article

Employers can read workers' personal messages sent via private messaging platforms during working hours, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled in what some are calling a landmark case.

The decision was in response to a case in which a Romanian business read an employee's Yahoo Messenger personal chats that he sent while at work. Judges said he had breached the company's rules and that his employer had a right to check on his activities, BBC News reported.

However, the judges noted that such policies must also protect workers against unfettered snooping.

The employee, an engineer in Romania, said he believed his boss had breached his right to confidential correspondence when it accessed his messages and then fired him in 2007. His employer had discovered that he was using Yahoo Messenger for personal contacts, as well as professional ones.

This was against a standing policy...