Private mails that are written at work, are not always under the secrecy of telecommunications. It does not matter if the letter is private emails allowed in the workplace specifically.

How pcwelt.de reported, is according to various court rulings, among other things, one of the administrative court in Frankfurt am Main, the secrecy of telecommunications relate only to a limited extent on emails at work. Telecommunications secrecy applies to phone calls, faxes and emails. Listening to a call in secret, it can be severe penalties, to be liable to imprisonment. However, the Federal Constitutional Court had already ruled in 2006 that the protection only for “ongoing telecommunications” endures.

In plain language this means that the employer in writing and send mails to the laws of the telecommunications secrecy is bound. Once this process is completed, however, it is not the secrecy of telecommunications. If the mail that is still archived on the computer, they are not protected from possible access. This also has a professional background: for example, if an employee is ill or on holiday, then the employer must in Zweifellsfall have the right to read mail through a process handled by the relevant staff informed.

When including private e-mail can be found, therefore, also applies to this no separate notice. Whether the letter is allowed private messages from the respective businesses or prohibited, playing for the application of existing laws do not matter. The use of a computer for private purposes in the past often been due to legal proceedings. A ruling by the country’s Labour leads in Mainz, for example, private browsing is still not necessarily a basis for termination, if this has been previously prohibited by the employer.