The trick here, as my understanding of the law goes, is that (a) the company had a policy that work computers are to be used for work only, AND (b) that the account in question was being used for both personal and professional contacts.<p>In general, your workplace can (assuming that you have agreed to this in policy) ensure that you&#x27;re using your computer for approved uses, and it can access all work-related information on the computer. You do have (limited) privacy over anything personal on the computer, but they&#x27;re welcome to discipline or fire you just for its existence, and in some cases they may access it if they have reasonable belief that they have to.<p>This ruling clarifies that if your personal information is mixed in with professional information, the company may access it, as little as necessary (the word you&#x27;ll come across lots is &quot;proportionate&quot;), as part of an internal investigation or similar. This has been spelled out by at least the British Government for a while now, nothing has changed.<p>EDIT: On a side note, anyone else notice how the article names the ex-employee and not the employer?