Legal Tip 337: Don’t Use Work Email For Non-Work Matters

A lot of people send me juicy emails from their work email account. Best practice is not to use your work email for private things, especially things of a financial nature. There are a few reasons for this:


Employer could be held to account

The distinction between personal and work is blurred. A comment in work email could get out into the public and embarrass the employer or event involve the employer in litigation such as for defamation, sexual harassment etc.


Access

Once you leave your employer you will no longer be able to access your email account. You will then have no record of what was sent or received. You might even lose the contact details of some people if you cannot see their emails anymore. But your former employer will still have access.


Private Information

You wouldn’t want your employer, or former employer, to have access to your private information. The employer and its staff could potentially see information and use it legally or illegally. If you have been sending your accountant financial information this could be visible to the employer.


Private Information used against you

Some people leave their employer in dispute. There may be contractual disputes where one party sues the other for something. Imagine suing a person and knowing their financial details such as their net worth, bank account numbers, spousal details, loan details etc. All this information could be used to the employers’ advantage.


Photos

Would you want your employer to have pictures of your family? They may not use them for anything but still…


Rogue Employees

Some employees go rogue. Someone in the IT department could steal your information, or use it to commit fraud for example.


Alternatives

Set up an external email account such as a Gmail account!

Some employers prevent access to these sorts of accounts from work computers, but they can be accessed from mobile phones relatively easy.

 

A good rule is - dont use a work device for any "private" matters. Adopt the view as even if it is deleted it can likely be recovered. Only use a work device for things you consider will be OK with the boss and even then cant be used if there is a falling out. When you clear a cache, browsing history or delete things it isnt deleted and basically much of what you accessed, downloaded, typed etc can be recovered by anyone who wants to. Years of it. Even a factory reset doesnt purge all data. It just makes it less visible even when its permanenty deleted. If someone wants to restore it they often can.

A recent US worker formerly employed by Tesla encounted a issue like this : https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/tesla-sues-former-employee-for-allegedly-stealing-software-code.html
Tesla seem to track employee use of data. Many others do same. Intellectual property is highly valued.

Another issue for work emails etc is the ability for IT to hack or acess considential information. We offer clients a portal and really dont recommend and caution use of a work email that is tied to access for messages. The client can access returns, notices and digitally sign with one click etc. But if its a work email who can read your emails ? They may even be able to reset passwords and delete any trail. And what happens if you download a PDF. Can they access it or a image of it ? It may be just sitting in a trashcan. They cant login but could learn your username, you may use a common password they can hack and then they have complete access to the full copy of a tax return. Identity fraud after several months.