The Privacy Act can allow outsiders to ask for information
Espie said people could also use the Privacy Act to access information that an organisation held about them, which could bring to light messages that had been intended to be private.
“It gives the right to any individual to request information about themselves. We often see that come up quite a lot in the context of employment processes, maybe a restructure or disciplinary process. Employees make requests for personal information about them and that may result in them getting access to internal emails about the process, maybe between a manager and the HR person about the process or suggesting there’s something more going on.”
He said it was for that reason that he advised employers to be careful what they put in writing when they were working through those employment processes.
“It may well be discoverable under say the Privacy Act or potentially the court process through the disclosure process.”
He said Privacy Act requests were fairly common in employment disputes. Sometimes people would seek targeted information to help them or send sweeping requests to see what turned up.
Public sector workers have extra exposure
Those in the public sector, like the workers at the ministry, have another layer to deal with because their work communications can potentially be covered by the Official Information Act.
This gives any member of the public the right to request information from government bodies, including emails and messages.
What’s on your phone could be private in some cases
If your employer pays for your phone plan, that does not automatically give them the right to information about what you are doing with it, Espie said.
But if they provide the phone, or the messaging systems being used, the same rules would apply as to any other workplace devices.