Perhaps I should clarify my original concern about the Ontario order. It's 
not that an employee should expect "personal" communciations sent or 
received on an employer's assets to be private; I agree that the employer 
has a reasonable right of access.  It's that the general public now has a 
right of access under access to information legislation to records of 
entities that wouldn't normally be subject to such law.

For example, I'm the General Editor of Archivaria, the scholarly journal 
of the Association of Canadian Archivists.  My employer has given me a 
certain amount of time to do some of this work at the office because it 
supports the academic mandate of the university.  I use my York University 
email address because it adds to my credibility.  I don't care that my 
employer can see what I'm up to with the journal.  I don't care that the 
IT folks can read my emails.  What I care about is that anyone now can 
make an access to information request specifically to gain access to 
Archivaria records which are not normally under the purview of the access 
legislation.  Now supposing someone made such a request, it's unlikely 
they would get many of the records because (a) the ACA as the third party 
would object, and (b) there are various exemptions in the legislation that 
could be used to restrict access.  But it would use up a lot of the 
university's resources having to process such a request, and it would be a 
drain on the professional association's scant resources as well.

So in my mind, this isn't a privacy issue--it's about access to 
information creep.
 
Carolyn Heald | Director, Records and Information Management | Information 
and Privacy Office | York University | 4700 Keele Street, N945 Ross | 
Toronto, ON  M3J 1P3 | 416 736-2100, ext 20398 



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