The Knowledge Group invited Professor Randy Diamond to speak at a webinar, “BYOD in eDiscovery: Managing Risks and Ensuring Best Practices in 2017.” Professor Diamond provided an overview of BYOD (“bring your own device”) programs and policies and a case law update, including two recent BYOD cases.

The California Supreme Court in City of San Jose v. Superior Court (Cal. March 2, 2017) held that when a city employee uses a personal account to communicate about the conduct of public business, the communication may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act. The court rejected the city’s argument that public business communications on government officials/employees personal devices were categorically exempt from the Act. Professor Diamond discussed the court’s treatment of privacy related concerns and guidance for determining whether a particular writing would qualify as being about “public business” under the Act.

Professor Diamond also commented on Crabtree v. Angie’s List (S.D. IND. Jan 31, 2017) as a civil litigation example of cell phone privacy concerns the U.S. Supreme articulated in U.S. v. Riley. In Crabtree, the court denied defendant’s request for a forensic examination of employee personal cell phones to obtain GPS and location services data, finding the request disproportionate to the needs of the case and outweighed by the employees’ significant privacy and confidentiality interests.