Colleague accessing email

LegacyUser

Just a quick question really.

I believe(in fact I'd bet on it) that a fellow colleague is regularly accessing my work emails, through their own computer, without consent or authorization.

Now, I'm aware they can and have no problems with my employer having access to my mails but this is just a regular employee who has no business doing so.

Why I believe this is another matter altogether, I just want to know where I stand on this or are there any laws against this?

I don't send personal mails (anymore) from my work account and it's not that I have anything to hide but I just find this extremely invasive and frustrating and it makes me uncomfortable.

Any thoughts?

ongarboy

Is your email account not password protected or linked to your desktop log on ID which should also be password protected? If not, implement one now and share with your manager if required. Most companies would have this measure in place if they take security even remotely seriously.

If there is email correspondence that involves shared access across a team, then a group mailbox that all required parties have access to should be set up.

In fairness, it doesn't sound like you have concrete evidence but are just acting on a a hunch. Do you lock your PC everytime you leave your desk (something we have to do in our company). Maybe, he browses your mail while you are at lunch in that case.

_Brian

soannoyed wrote: »

Just a quick question really.

I believe(in fact I'd bet on it) that a fellow colleague is regularly accessing my work emails, through their own computer, without consent or authorization.

Now, I'm aware they can and have no problems with my employer having access to my mails but this is just a regular employee who has no business doing so.

Why I believe this is another matter altogether, I just want to know where I stand on this or are there any laws against this?

I don't send personal mails (anymore) from my work account and it's not that I have anything to hide but I just find this extremely invasive and frustrating and it makes me uncomfortable.

Any thoughts?

The big question here is this employee doing so at the request or understanding of the manager?? If not then I'd say you should bring this to the managers attention

People need to think of work PC's/accounts as belonging to the employer and that includes the content.. Our office here everyone has same/similar email and its expected that when you're off anyone can sit at your desk and access emails without managers specific consent, its just a given..

_Kaiser_

_Brian wrote: »

The big question here is this employee doing so at the request or understanding of the manager?? If not then I'd say you should bring this to the managers attention

People need to think of work PC's/accounts as belonging to the employer and that includes the content.. Our office here everyone has same/similar email and its expected that when you're off anyone can sit at your desk and access emails without managers specific consent, its just a given..

That's also a no-no...

Employee email can only be accessed if specific approval has been given (generally the HR manager or above with approval from the Compliance manager) and then only for specified mails or items.

You are correct that the PC, account an email is the property of your employer (which is why it's very silly how people treat it as a personal machine/account) but no-one (certainly not a line manager) can just decide they want to have a snoop through their team's email and every email account should be protected by a unique login and password (often tied to your Windows account if using MS Exchange/Outlook). Standard policy would also be for people to lock their machines if away from their desk -whether that's at lunch or gone to the loo.

Mrs OBumble

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

That's also a no-no...

Employee email can only be accessed if specific approval has been given (generally the HR manager or above with approval from the Compliance manager) and then only for specified mails or items.

Sez who?

It may be that your company has that policy, but others will be different.

Especially small companies that have neither a HR nor Compliance manager

Eoin

More info here - if this is actually happening, and happening at the request of management.

https://www.dataprotection.ie/viewdoc.asp?m=&fn=/documents/guidance/3gm3.htm

Use of the Computer Network, E-Mail and Internet.

Private use of the Internet in the workplace and the monitoring of private emails pose certain challenges. A workplace policy should be in place in an open and transparent manner to provide that:

A balance is required between the legitimate rights of employers and the personal privacy rights of employees
Any monitoring activity should be transparent to workers
Employers should consider whether they would obtain the same results with traditional measures of supervision
Monitoring should be fair and proportionate with prevention being more important than detection

soannoyed

OP here, couldn't reply annomously for some reason. anyway, thanks for taking time to reply.

Just want to clarify a few things.

This person has absolutely not been instructed to monitor anyone, the company is small and if they wanted someone monitored, management would do it themselves. it's not that type of company.

secondly, my computer is password protected but we all have generic passwords in case of absence. but being that its a small company, this person would be involved in most of the IT side and has access to servers etc anyway, so can easily access anyone's emails or set them up to also go to theirs.

like I said, I've absolutely no issues with management accessing my emails but there's no reason why this person has any business doing so.

I should also mention that ive had issues with this person in the past, in that they're a bit stalkerish, the type that route through people's desks when they're not there and think that because they work there its ok. just to give a bit of context as to why im so bothered by it.

(Apologies for any typos etc. on phone)

InReality

I'd bring it up with your manager. I'm pretty sure people who work on the IT side would be disciplined in most places if they just had a browse through other people's emails.

Nody

soannoyed wrote: »

OP here, couldn't reply annomously for some reason. anyway, thanks for taking time to reply.

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seamus

InReality wrote: »

I'd bring it up with your manager. I'm pretty sure people who work on the IT side would be disciplined in most places if they just had a browse through other people's emails.

Yep. Most places will instantly dismiss an IT admin who abuses their access to snoop on colleagues.

Anywhere I've been, it's considered a more serious breach than using a colleagues account.

martinsvi

stay away from generic passwords, use an individual password and don't tell it to anyone. There's no reason for anyone to be using your account except when small companies want to save some money on software licencing, in which case there should be separate, generic accounts not linked to a specific employee.