s while advertising a feeling which led the employees to believe their messages were private.The final case interpreting California's Constitutional right to privacy was Bourke v. Nissan Motor Company. [California Superior Court, Los Angeles County (1991)] In determining whether the right to privacy has been violated, the court said you must first determine whether the individual had a personal and objectively reasonable expectation of privacy. Nissan argued that there was no reasonable expectation because the employees had signed a Computer User Registration Form, which stated, "it is company policy that employees and contractors restrict their use of company-owned computer hardware and software to company business. Bourke and Hall countered that they had a privacy expectation because they were given passwords to access the computer system and were told to safeguard these passwords. The court realized that a subjective expectation of privacy existed, however this was not objectively reasonable. As a result, since there was no reasonable expectation of privacy, there was no violation of the right to privacy.The federal courts seem to have taken the same position. In Smyth v. Pillsbury Corporation, [914 F. Supp. 97 (E.D. Pa. 1996).] a federal court in Pennsylvania ruled this year that Pillsbury Corporation was entitled to fire a manager who had sent e-mail critical of a supervisor, even though the company had explicitly promised it would not monitor e-mail messages. The court reasoned that an employer may not be prevented from firing an employee based upon a promise, even when reliance is demonstrated. The court also quickly dismissed plaintiff's claims of a tortious invasion of privacy under common and statutory law.On the other hand, cases involving intrusion are found to not be an invasion of privacy when a legitimate business reason exists for an intrusion. In Vernars v. Young [539 F.2d 966 (3d Cir. 1976).] an employee's e-mail ...
