Law and Ethics of Digital Media: Privacy Law Hypothetical - Essay Example

Considering the case of Scott Webber, who sues his former employer - Sony Inc, alleging invasion of privacy, presents the question of legitimacy of his claim of privacy for passworded email in the workplace. Webber, in relation to the law, has reason to present his arguments based on a number of privacy concerns. With regard to privacy law, there are innumerable legal issues that are applicable to this case. Such include denial of access to personal property; which in this case would mean restricting Webber form accessing his personal email.

There is also violation of privacy in allocating personal information to third parties without consent; in this case referring to Webber’s claims that his former employer released contents of his messages to third parties (Vogel). In addition to that, invasion of private property, as a legal issue, is also presented as Webber argues that Sony Inc had wrongfully accessed his personal email folders that are protected by a personal password. One major aspect of privacy law that is significant to this case is the logical expectation of privacy.

Webber argued that, by allowing him to use a personal password, Sony acknowledged his expectation that the personal e?mail folders would be private. Courts in the United States, for a long time, have debated on whether the government can access information stored on digital media without breaching Amendment IV of the US constitution; if such information provides evidence of an unlawful activity (Lessig, Post and Volokh). The subject of question has been whether the Fourth Amendment, which concerns the reasonableness of searches and arrest, also protects incriminating evidence that is stored in a workplace computer by an employee.

More often than not, cases realized that employees are not really entitled to a reasonable probability of privacy when it comes to electronic communique at the workplace such as e-mail. However, upon a petition for rehearing on January 30, 2007, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (United States v. Ziegler, 497 F.3d 890) reversed its past ruling on August 2006, thereby recognizing that an employee has a right to privacy in his or her workplace computer (Lessig, Post and Volokh, Privacy).

Another aspect to note, concerning Webber’s case, is employee privacy at the workplace. Employers literally own facilities and resources available at the workplace, which makes them virtually in control of such facilities as an office computer and their uses. Personal privacy is different from the privacy at the workplace because the latter involves more than one’s interest. Webber presents claims of violation of privacy on a company property by his employer; an argument which questions employees’ privacy rights at the workplace.

In Ziegler’s case, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, however, acknowledged that the employer could approve a government search of an employee’s computer without infringing on the Fourth Amendment rights (Kravets). Considering a number of provisions by the law, Sony Inc is likely to be victorious in its defense against Scott Webber’s claims. According to The US Supreme Court ruling, some searches may violate the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of reasonableness. For instance, in a situation where there is a likely reason that a criminal act is involved. As