Court To Hear Text Message Case
The Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear a case that will weigh how much privacy employees should have over text messages sent from company accounts, the Associated Press reported. The high court said it would review a federal appeals court ruling in City of Ontario v. Quon.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in favor of Sgt. Jeff Quon and three others who sued the Ontario, Calif., police department for violating their privacy rights by improperly snooping on their text message exchanges. The city said it was trying to determine if pagers were being used only for work purposes. Quon sent and received hundreds of personal messages, including some that were sexual in nature, according to the AP.
The text messaging service also was faulted by the appeals court for turning over transcripts of text messages to department officials without the permission of those involved, the AP reported. The police department and USA Mobility Wireless, which has since bought the text messaging service involved in the case, both appealed the ruling but the justices only agreed to hear the city's case.
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