Should my boss be allowed proxy access to my emails?

[aceyoung1]

My boss has access to my emails, so she can read any email I send or receive. is this normal? is she imposeing on any of my rights as an employee?

[Englishbird]

I'm pretty sure she has every right to read any emails to or from your work email - I guess the theory being that you should only be doing work stuff at work.  She doesn't have any right to read private emails on a private account (eg if you had a hotmail account) although the company may have rules that you're not allowed to access a private account in work hours or from works computer.  I keep them seperate so that my personal emails are not accessable from the network. xx

[ian.miller]

As long as they have told you they have access then they are entitled to.

They couldn't not tell you, then get you into trouble for sending something like a job application. But if they've been clear that they have access then and what the rules of internet / email use are and you knowingly break them by sending personaly / dodgy emails then you haven't got a leg to stand on.

[AllYourBase]

I would be surprised if she actually routinely reads any of your emails. I would imagine the facility is there in order to prevent nil responses during absences more than to snoop. Do you have anything to hide?

[Octavius]

Some companies monitor email and internet usage extremely carefully. For example, one large insurance company picks a day at random each month and prints off and reads a copy of every email coming into and going out of the company. Other companies use email filtering.

The first step for a company is to set up an email and internet policy. The law does not require an employer to formulate an email/internet policy but it is the sensible option. It should make very clear what is and what is not permissible. And also make clear what monitoring will take place - so no-one can say they were not warned.

The employer provides you with a work email address for the purposes of work and the company, they have told you that they have a monitoring policy (proxy) and this is acting in the interests of the comapny confidentiality - the contents of an email are covered by the same laws as the contents of a letter - therefore you have been warned so be careful.