's Tumblelog

U.S. Court Rules that Employee-Attorney E-Mails Are Private

In the United States the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that the
Loving Care Agency was wrong in retrieving emails that were sent by a
former employee, Marina Stengart, to her attorney even though the emails
were sent using the company’s own computer systems. In 2008, Marina
Stengart filed a lawsuit against the company claiming discrimination
based on gender, religion and national origin. Before leaving the
company Ms. Stengart exchanged a number of emails with her attorney by
accessing her Yahoo email account using the company’s computers. Loving
Care retrieved copies of the emails from their systems and argued in
court that the emails were sent in breach of company policy which states
that emails “are not to be considered private or personal to any
individual employee” and that the company had the right to “review,
audit, intercept, access, and disclose all matters on the company’s
media systems and services at any time.” Earlier, a trial court agreed
with the company, but in a 7-0 ruling the Supreme Court overruled that
decision and ordered the company to turn over all copies of the e-mails
and delete any record of them.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=10248507
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/nj_supreme_court_rules_employe.html
http://www.northjersey.com/news/033010_State_court_rules_company_shouldnt_have_read_ex-staffers_private_emails.html

From Steve Jobs 1997 presentation when he announced his partnership with Microsoft:

Where we are right now is, we are shepherding some of the greatest assets in the computer industry.

If we want to move forward, seeing Apple helping an prospering again.

We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace the notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job. And if others are going to help us, that’s great. Because we need all the help we can get. And if we screw up and do not do a good job, it is not somebody else’s fault, it is our fault.

So I think that is a very important discussion.

If we want Microsoft office on the Mac, we better treat the company that puts it out with a little bit of gratitude. We like their software.

So the era of setting this up as a competition between Apple and Microsoft is over as far as I am concerned. This is about getting Apple healthy and this is about Apple being able to make incredibly great contributions to the industry and get healthy and prosper again.

Source: announced his partnership

Internal competition is common at great companies. It can be wisely encouraged to force ideas to compete. The problem comes when the competition becomes uncontrolled and destructive. At Microsoft, it has created a dysfunctional corporate culture in which the big established groups are allowed to prey upon emerging teams, belittle their efforts, compete unfairly against them for resources, and over time hector them out of existence.

Op-Ed Contributor - Microsoft’s Creative Destruction - NYTimes.com