Employers are entitled to access data on company-issued computers unless the employee has clearly marked the files as personal, the French Supreme Court has ruled. Otherwise, files were presumed to be work-related, and employers are entitled to access without forwarning or notifying employees
In the case, an employer suspected an employee of having competed unfairly with the employer's business and requested a bailiff to search the employee's work computer. To avoid the risk of the employee destroying evidence, the employer did not forewarn the employee of the search.
The baliff found a folder in the computer labelled with the employee's initials containing two subfolders, one labelled personal and the other labelled with the name of the employee's competitor. The baliff did not examine the folder labelled personal, but did search the the other folder, finding evidence that the employee had engaged in unfair competition against the employer. The employee was terminated without endemnity.
The employee sued the employer for violation of privacy. The Court of appeals found that the bailiff should not have opened the folder titled with the employee’s initials without first informing the employee or without the employee being present. The French Supreme Court's decision, consistent with the French Data Protection Agency (CNIL), has made it clear that all files created by an employee on an employer’s computer belong to the employer unless they are expressly identified as personal
The decision is available at: n°07-43877
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