Contractor Reading My Emails...

[Khun Jean]

I have several freelancers working for me from time to time.

We give them a company email account, but to make it clear it will never have the name of the person. More like [email protected] or another alias. And we use that for communicating. If someone gets sick or not work for us anymore the account still exists and emails are forwarded to the right person.

This way the freelancer knows (and they are told) that every single e-mail sent is logged and kept on file. Nobody ever had a problem with that. Personal e-mail can be send with a personal account.

Every outgoing e-mail (to the client) is moderated. If the content is not up to standard the freelancer gets it back to make adjustments.

It is a lot of work to do, but from experience we know it is necessary, and it gets easier in time. Most mails now are 'trusted' and get an approved without reading it. In our case you can have brilliant programmers without any decent communication skills, and since they are freelancers, some are trying to work directly for a client by sending personal information.

Also monitoring if clients get answered in a timely matter is important.

If we don't do this, many things go wrong.

In Khall's case if i read it correctly, the content was changed without her knowing. This is not the correct way to do it. It should be send back with information what was wrong in the email with an explanation. If not, then the boss is not a real boss but more a slave of his company and unable to delegate.

[thaihome]

You are all still missing the point as it contravenes current privacy laws and the only way around this is to inform the staff that their e-mail may be read if sent over a company network and get them to sign as agreeing to it.

If you fail to inform your staff and get them to sign as agreeing and then subsequently pull them up on an e-mail they may have sent then you are leaving yourself wide open for infringment of the privacy laws and data protection act.

Which countries privacy laws would that be?

I don't disagree with you that the employee should be informed that the there is no privacy on the company's network. We get such a warning every time we log in.

I still maintain, that if you are using a employer's system, they have the every right to monitor your usage, and in today's world most will do so.

TH

[Casanundra]

Which countries privacy laws would that be?

I don't disagree with you that the employee should be informed that the there is no privacy on the company's network. We get such a warning every time we log in.

I still maintain, that if you are using a employer's system, they have the every right to monitor your usage, and in today's world most will do so.

TH

As we are talking about Thailand I was referring to Thai law which states:

Section 37 of the 1997 Thai Constitution "... Persons have the freedom to communicate with one another by lawful means. Search, detention or exposure of lawful communication materials between persons, as well as actions by other means so as to snoop into the contents of the communications materials between persons, is prohibited unless it is done by virtue of the power vested in a provision of the law specifically for the purpose of maintaining national security or for the purpose of maintaining peace and order or good public morality."

Company network or not ** Thai ** privacy laws have been infringed unless of course it was done in the name of national security or to maintain peace and good public morality.

[davidjtayler]

Which countries privacy laws would that be?

I don't disagree with you that the employee should be informed that the there is no privacy on the company's network. We get such a warning every time we log in.

I still maintain, that if you are using a employer's system, they have the every right to monitor your usage, and in today's world most will do so.

TH

As we are talking about Thailand I was referring to Thai law which states:

Section 37 of the 1997 Thai Constitution "... Persons have the freedom to communicate with one another by lawful means. Search, detention or exposure of lawful communication materials between persons, as well as actions by other means so as to snoop into the contents of the communications materials between persons, is prohibited unless it is done by virtue of the power vested in a provision of the law specifically for the purpose of maintaining national security or for the purpose of maintaining peace and order or good public morality."

Company network or not ** Thai ** privacy laws have been infringed unless of course it was done in the name of national security or to maintain peace and good public morality.

That must be why the local boys in blue made the management remove the cameras from the 'white room' of Reflections hotel here in Bangkok......

[Casanundra]

Nooo that was because the camera contravened Section 34 of Thai law which states;

"A person's family rights, dignity, reputation or his right to privacy shall be protected. The assertion or circulation of a statement or picture in any manner whatsoever to the public, which violates or affects a person's family rights, dignity, reputation or the right of privacy, shall not be made except for the case which is beneficial to the public."

I heard a camera has gone up in Nana (I have no seen it myself as I don't go there) but how long will that last under the rule stated in Section 34 of the consitution law. maybe someone should go and inform the owner of the camera

[MarkBKK]

Section 37 of the 1997 Thai Constitution ...

Would that be the 1997 Thai Constitution that was recently abolished?

[GuestHouse]

I find it curious that so many people are willing to give up their rights on the basis that 'The Boss is the Boss'.

I reminds me of my favourite Irish Joke.

'How do you get 50 Englishmen in a Phone Box?..... Make one the boss and all the others will crawl up his @ss'

[sting01]

It's not about to give up right.

If you are acting as a company employee, your actings/sayings will involve the company itself. by so it's normal if the company protect itself (case of kiddie porn viewed while at work for exemple).

There is a lot of world companies (France telecom/orange for exemple) that ask an employee to sign a formal document where it's stated internet have to used only for professional means while at work (in fact the wording is more precise, it's while at work, or if not at work the use of any server related to the company, such send an personal email from your home but with your professional address, it's simply forbidden).

On the other hand, the company accept to use fact, but to not modify by any means what is send or received. If you send a mail to your gf (Assuming she is not a client) then you are guilty, but Orange do not have the right to check by other way than a sofware. The mail will be logged, but will not be read by a human person. Your privacy is respected, and the case is only a professional case, similar to someone working in a garage who borrow a client car for something. Somehting is irrelevant, but borrow a client car is relevant. I hope the image is clear (affraid about my english).

I use to work , officially as freelance, but it's 2 years so it's more as a regular job, for a society based in USA. I have as well an email with them. On the same time I still work as real freelance for other comps, I never use that email for communication with my others clients. It would involve the US company and be at least fool, maybe considered as a unfair way (using the US company reputation for exemple) for me to get clients.

So reading email is not legal, but necessary (security both IT security, and legal security). On theother hand, modify without the consent of the email owner (the person who send , or get it) the ocntent of the wmail is illegal.With a good lawyer, it must be possible to make it called an " anlawfull hack and a modification of vital electronic datas" and certaily allow the email owner (the OP) to get huge money against it ... with also a early retirement because I doubt anyone after will be ready to offer him work. So depend if really those emails were important, if yes sue the company. If not, simply do not use anymore this email even for communications with the company on the ground you discovered a third party was hacking the mail server. They will understand and maybe give some explanations.