On 12 January 2016, the European Court of Human Rights handed down a decision on the lawfulness of monitoring private messages sent on an employee's Yahoo! Messenger account using the employer's computer system; the case was Barbulescu v. Romania.
The facts of this case were quite specific; however the key message, which reflects the existing position in the UK, is that employers do have a right in limited circumstances to monitor even private communications at work, provided such monitoring is reasonable, not excessive and communicated to the employee.
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