Public Employees' Private Email Stays Private

from the that-makes-sense dept

Over in Florida, the State Supreme Court has ruled that government employees who use private email accounts don't have to turn over their private emails to the public - even if they wrote them at work using government computers. Some are saying that this just means government employees will shift any questionable activities to their private email accounts. Of course, that doesn't mean their private email can't be subpoenaed separately if there's something suspicious, but it does mean they won't have to open up their private emails any time there's a Freedom of Information request. It's a fine line, and about the only thing you can say for certain is that old laws concerning such freedom of government information were clearly written for a time before electronic communications were so widespread.

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