In most cases, yes, your employer can read your work email on your work computer. Most employers have employment policies that state that email is for work usage. Additionally, the employer owns the computers and the server upon which those emails are transmitted. Most reviewing courts have determined that employees do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in emails.

If the employer cracked into an employer’s private email—say a Yahoo or Google email account at work—that might present a different story. However, the problem is that employees are supposed to be doing company work on company time rather than surfing the Internet, playing computer games or sending messages to “friends” over a social networking site.