Catherwood LibraryILR School

The United States Supreme Court will begin to hear a case today that could define employee privacy rights in the digital age. Jeff Quon, a California SWAT team commander, was found to have used his workplace PDA to send personal, and rather erotic, messages ('sexting') to his wife and mistress. Together, Quon, his wife, his mistress, and another police officer sued, saying the contents of their messages should have been private. In 2008, a lower court ruled in favor of Quon and his supporters; the case has ended up in the Supreme Court after an appeal by the defendants. Labor and business leaders await the outcome of the Supreme Court's decision, which could change the way digital privacy is thought of. Currently, most digital privacy is checked at the office door, but new technologies and a recession that have affected working hours and environments have blurred the personal and the professional.