Europe court backs employee fired over private messages

Strasbourg, France

EUROPE'S top rights court on Tuesday restricted the ability of employers to snoop on their staff's private messages in a landmark ruling with wide ramifications for privacy in the workplace.

The highest body of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favour of a 38-year-old Romanian man who claimed his rights had been violated when he was sacked in 2007 for sending private chat messages in the office.

Bogdan Mihai Barbulescu has fought a 10-year legal battle through Romanian and European courts, claiming his privacy was infringed when hi…