Can my employer check my work email?

The company i work for are investigating the office pc as it has crashed due to having a virus. I have nothing to hide and know they can check work email but are they allowed to check any emails sent or received via personal account? (ie yahoo %26amp; hotmail)

Can my employer check my work email?
Privacy law is the area of law concerning the protection and preservation of the privacy rights of individuals.





As you have stated in your question details, They will check it for the Virus to find out where or what files has been infected and not to read your emails as it is private. And I don't think that they can read your emails on Yahoo and Hotmail as you have a personal password to login.
Reply:Yes they can check the history lists and any email on the system as technically although it is sent to you it is their email address on their server/PC, so legally they own it and it is theirs to do with as they see fit. Your personal mail should not be on the system, but as the system and all its content is legally their property, they can search it to look for the source of infection, though to do this they don't need to open the mail just scan the files.


Your Hotmail and Yahoo accounts should not store the emails on the PC unless you use the email program on the PC (like Outlook for example) to download your mail. If you go to the hotmail and yahoo websites to view your mail the contents will not be stored on the PC.


If you have downloaded your emails then they do have the right to search it for the source of infection but should ask your permission to do so, though legally I believe they don't have to, they own the PC or network and everything on it should only be used for business purposes.
Reply:They are alowed to check any information that is on that computer being as they own it. If any of those emails are saved on it, they can read them.





As far as logging into your personal account, legally no they cannot do that. But that isn't to say that if you have your logon and password saved in a cookie that they won't look.





They can however, see the data on your computer, and they can see if you visit yahoo and hotmail sites and you can get introuble for using personal email / non work related websites, if doing so is against company policy.
Reply:Well, they can definitely get the detail about the sites you browsed. But, the mails, they can see it only if the mail server is hosted in your company itself or if they reset your official mail account password.





To find out what you write in other web mails (yahoo, gmail, hotmail, etc.) I don't think any company would do that by installing a spy-ware in your system because the spy-ware will record all the keystrokes (this includes your internet banking passwords and stuff) and store it or mail it to the Systems Administrator.
Reply:They can't log into your personal e-mail accounts to check them. However, if they are doing a forensic examination of the hard drive, the will probably be able to find copies of any e-mail that you viewed on the computer - and that they have a right to do, as the computer belongs to them. That's the risk you take viewing personal e-mail at work.
Reply:First of all you have no work e-mails there the company you work for and it's there computer you are on and its probably there time to so don't be surprised to find out that they are checking on everybody computer anyway. so be careful what you do there watching you.
Reply:Yes they can if they are downloaded. But webmail such as yahoo or google mail when read from the website and not downloaded are OK. Anything on the PC belongs to the company and they have every legal right.
Reply:I don't see how they can if you don't give them your password and aren't logged in. Unless you've been daft and had them redirected to your work email address, or into your outlook.
Reply:It's their computer they can do anything they want with it.They don't need your passwords, everything that has ever been entered into that computer will remain on the hard drive.
Reply:Yes and check the web sites you go to. They can also use a keyboard tracker.
Reply:Nope, they are breaching privacy, but in another way they can as I don't really think you should be accessing your E-mail at work
Reply:Yes - if you were using their computer
Reply:Yes they are