An employee left his work place and his private e-mail box remained open on the desktop computer at the workplace. As the company sought to give his computer to another employee it was exposed to messages indicating a fraud committed by the employee.
The Supreme Court held that leaving open information on a computer does not give permission to others to read it, and certainly not to copy it, but if the infringement of the privacy rights was done in good faith and to protect the personal interest of the company the messages will be admissible. Nevertheless, if a person was exposed by chance and passively to e-mail correspondence of another, it might still be covered under the privacy protection included. Thus, the case was remitted to the District Court in order to determine whether the company may use the data under the circumstances of this case.