The US Supreme Court has put limits on the privacy rights of government workers saying that a California police department acted reasonably when it reviewed personal text messages on an officer’s government-issued pager. The Surpremes unanimously rejected arguments by SWAT team member Jeff Quon that the city of Ontario violated his rights under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.

The city had a transcript of Quon’s messages during an investigation to determine whether officers were using their pagers for personal messages. He had been exchanging sexually explicit messages with his wife, his girlfriend and another SWAT team member. “Quon could have anticipated that it might be necessary for the city to audit pager messages to assess the SWAT team’s performance in particular emergency situations,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court.

There had been fears that the changes could set a precedent which would allow companies to search emails and other private information that was stored on company equipment.

However it appears the Supremes opted for a narrow ruling which is pretty case specific. This sort of ruling prevents elaborating too fully on the Fourth Amendment implications of emerging technology before its role in society has become clear.

More here.