Reading my personal emails because I had password saved

[benfinkel]

Hello,

I (stupidly) had my password for my personal Hotmail email account saved in my web-browser on my work PC. After I put in my two-weeks I came in to clear out my office belongings and found my employer reading my personal email on that PC. In subsequent arguments he is bringing up things he read in those emails.

I know that it's a work computer and that anything I do is not private, but this seems above and beyond. He wouldn't be welcome to open my bank account and review my recent transactions just because I had my bank pw saved on that pc (I didn't, thank god) so does this overstep a boundary or am I s-o-l?

Thanks,

-Ben

 

[FlaRiptide]

Using your work computer to send and receive personal email would be sufficient grounds for dismissal in some companies. This would be dictated by the company's policy.

There is nothing illegal should your employer read anything on the company computer. Anything you place on that computer becomes their property.

 

[Patricia_Young]

You are SOL. Don't want personal information known, don't access your personal email account or other personal sites on the company computer.

Have you suffered any damages (meaning, money) from this?

 

[benfinkel]

There have been no damages suffered yet. Yet being the key word.

I understand that information stored on a company PC is not private, but it's not clear to me that this was a legal use of that information. The emails were not stored on the PC, only the password to access the email account. He had to open a web-browser and access Hotmail with that password in order to read my emails.

Thank you for your replies.

 

[Patricia_Young]

You're free to seek legal counsel, of course, but you can't sue for something that hasn't yet happened.