Companies can monitor workers' private online chats, European court rules

Privacy concerns dismissed by European court of human rights after Romanian engineer fired for using Yahoo Messenger to communicate with fiancee

Employees in Europe might want to think carefully about using the internet to send private messages during office hours after Europe's top rights court ruled on Tuesday that companies could monitor workers' online communications.

The case revolved around a Romanian engineer who was fired in 2007 after his company discovered he was using Yahoo Messenger to chat not only with his professional contacts but also with his fiancee and brother.