You are working as Computer Forensics investigator and are called by the owner of an accounting firm to investigate possible computer abuse by one of the firm's employees. You meet with the owner of the firm and discover that the company has never published a policy stating that they reserve the right to inspect their computing assets at will. What do you do?
When a company has not published a policy stating that they reserve the right to inspect their computing assets at will, conducting an investigation without such a policy can be considered a violation of the employee's expectation of privacy. Employees generally have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their workplace if they are not explicitly informed otherwise. Without a clear policy, the company risks infringing on this expectation by proceeding with an investigation, which could lead to legal complications and disputes over privacy rights.
The Fourth Amendment states that the government agents may not search or seize areas or things in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, without a search warrant Note: Private intrusions not acting in the color of governmental authority are exempted from the Fourth Amendment