An Arkansas judge ruled that the act of sending an email to a government email address means that there is "no expectation of privacy." And, it would seem that you don't need to have your emails released to the public to be completely embarrassed by them in public.
The potential release of an Arkansas woman's email made it to the State Supreme Court. While excerpts from only a few of the emails were released (Arkansas Blog) -- there was certainly enough embarrassment to go around. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette, a widely read newspaper, described the emails as "highly personal and graphic." And, while she was not named in the paper, she was described as the "woman representing the company providing the county’s (Pulaski County) financial software." Even the name of the software company has become public -- although I won't repeat it here.
I don't know the name of this poor woman. But, I imagine that everyone at her company, the county office, and most of her friends now know about her email habits.
The release of the emails is not the direct result of what she did. It wasn't because of her -- it was the guy on the other end of the email, former Pulaski County Comptroller Ron Quillin. He had leaded not guilty to charges that he embezzled $42,000 while in office, according to Today's THV. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette used the Freedom of Information Act to request emails by Quillin. While the country tried to prevent release of personal messages, County Judge Buddy Villines decided that the messages to the woman were business mail. Here are two excerpts from the ruling reported on the Arkansas Blog:
""...this court finds that Jane Doe had no expectation of privacy when she emailed Mr. Quillin at his Pulaski County government email address..."
"The public has a right to know if the personal relationship with Jane Doe affected Mr. Quillin's performance as a public employee. The public has a right to know if the personal relationship influenced Mr. Quillin in expenditures of county funds."
I was aware that under open meeting laws, emails that were sent to a quorum of government officials was public record. (Many local governments are still learning this lesson.) But, the "no expectation of privacy" by mailing to a government email address is bigger than that.
The Arkansas Supreme Court today granted a temporary stay of the order, but it did not reverse the ruling. Unfortunately, by making it a Supreme Court issue, the email became more notorious. As email archiving becomes more widely used -- especially by state and local governments -- I think that we can expect more people caught up in the spotlight.
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