>Al,
>
>Contrary to what many people are saying here, I am not sure you have any legal right to intercept this person's email. This subject came up when I took a Network Administrators course for W2K at the University of Michigan.
>
>I quote the following from a policy page:
>
>The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) is the
> only existing federal law specifically governing e-mail. Under
> the ECPA there is privacy protection against both interception of
> electronic communications while in transmission and against
> unauthorized intrusion into e-mail stored on the system.
> Interception of electronic communication is prohibited (section
> 101-100 Stat 1850), and service providers of electronic
> communications cannot intentionally divulge communication
> contents, with certain exceptions (section 102). These provisions
> protect the privacy of electronic communications in general.
>
>There are conflicting laws on the subject at state and federal levels. Intruding into someone's email is a serious issue. There are some laws protecting privacy and others protecting rights to know...I'd make sure you had a good legal opinion before doing *anything*.

*sigh* the deeper I look into this can, the more worms I see...

The separate e-mail issue is worth considering, at least. However, I see a couple of problems:

- my understanding is that companies are specifically allowed to monitor employee e-mail. The reasoning is that employees might be using company resources for spamming, porn, etc.

- since we *are* Canadian up here, we probably can't go too deeply into chapter & verse on specific statutes. < g >