Company Penalized For Accessing Employees' MySpace Page

(Published June 29, 2009)

 

A federal jury decided that managers at Houston's Restaurant (Hackensack, NJ) violated the federal Stored Communications Act and the New Jersey Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act and acted maliciously by accessing an invitation-only, password-protected MySpace group.  The jury awarded $17,000 in back pay and damages to the two employees who were fired for creating the group.

 

The employees created the MySpace group so that they and their co-workers could privately discuss their workplace grievances; no managers were invited to join.  Postings included derogatory statements about customers and managers, graphic sexual language, sarcastic comments about the restaurant's service standards, and an advance copy of the exam given to staff about the restaurant's wine list.

 

A greeter at the restaurant, who was a member of the group, showed the postings to a manager, who in turn told another manager about the forum.  The two managers twice asked the greeter for her log-in code and password.  She provided it, and the managers accessed the forum fives times using her information.  The managers fired the two founding employees because the posts were damaging to employees' morale and contrary to the restaurant's core values.

 

While the jury ruled that the MySpace group was "a place of solitude and seclusion which was designed to protect the [employees'] private affairs and concerns," it held that employees had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the group.  Thus, the jury rejected their invasion of privacy claim.

 

Pietrylo v. Hillstone Restaurant Group, D.C. NJ, No. 2:06-cv-5754, 2009