Access to Personal E-mails Enough for Statutory Damages under Federal Stored Communications Act . . . Even With No Actual Damages

Joseph Lazzarotti writes:

Employers need to exercise care when accessing employees’ e-mails, particularly e-mails on personal e-mail accounts. In Pure Power Boot Camp Inc. v. Warrior Fitness Boot Camp LLC, a non-compete case that turned into a case about the privacy of stored e-mails and violations of the federal Stored Communications Act (SCA), the court held:

1. SCA statutory damages can be recovered by plaintiffs, even if they suffered no actual damages, and
2. the calculation of statutory damages ($1,000 per violation), generally is based on the number of times the “electronic communications facility” (or personal e-mail account, e.g., Hotmail) is accessed, not the number of emails accessed.

Read more on Workplace Privacy Data Management & Security Report.