Employee Email Monitoring - Is reading LinkedIn Private messages legal in the UK

[Jon_bhoy79]

Hi

I was dismissed by redundancy in Jan from a SME run by director shareholders. The process was brutal and not by the book which was upheld at Tribunal. As part of evidence gathering for the ET I made a Subject Access Request which uncovered unauthorised access - hacking - of my LinkedIn account as evidenced by screen shots of private messages that were provided as part of the SARS. In the messages I was discussing my future employment strategy with connections, which on the face of it would have been in contravention of a restrictive covenant and the directors revealed them as a threat to withdraw.

Its had the opposite effect and the complaint is now with the Information Commissioners Office who don't seem to know what to do with it. The company in question have so far ignored ICO and all my research points to a breach of the Data Protection Act.

Are there any HR or Social Media Litigators out there who might have any insight into how this is likely to play out?

Thanks in advance

[paulajayne]

Important questions - On a work computer? On their network? During work time?

[Jon_bhoy79]

Hi PaulaJayne

Thanks for your contribution.

I was no longer employed by the company when the messages in question were composed and sent on my own network, personal device and in my own time.

On reading the Cybercrime prosecution guidance this evening (as a rank amateur I must add) I wondering if its ICO I should be speaking to at all?

Jon

[Hunterman]

Dude, I used to be categorically negative about this, but over time I realized that this is an extremely common practice among employers. I cannot say that this is terrible and wrong, but I also cannot support this strategy because in this way a person is left without personal space ... This is worth thinking about. Nevertheless, you can find a huge number of vacancies on linkedin and also get some awesome recommendations there! A friend of mine even helped me and wrote me some really cool recommendations based on the linkedin recommendation sample.

[Manxman]

thanks for your advice, I really appreciate it

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[Manxman]

Hi PaulaJayne

Thanks for your contribution.

I was no longer employed by the company when the messages in question were composed and sent on my own network, personal device and in my own time.

On reading the Cybercrime prosecution guidance this evening (as a rank amateur I must add) I wondering if its ICO I should be speaking to at all?

Jon

That's what I thought when I read your first post. I don't think it's an ICO matter.