SA Can employer seize personal devices?

[joinkyn]

So work sent an interesting email out today about corporate theft essentially and not copying things to personal computers in any way… and then said “I’m order to protect our data and confidentiality, the company reserves the right to access, scan, monitor, inspect and, where necessary, seize the personal computing and data storage assets of any employee to be found in breach of this policy”

Would I be right in assuming that they cannot do this without a warrant? Even if they made you sign off on the policy as “understood and agreed to abide by” etc?

Google was no help at all and just kept spitting up results about monitoring on BYOD scenarios, which we do not really do.

Just seems like a bit of overreach to me.

 

[Rod]

Would I be right in assuming that they cannot do this without a warrant?

No. They can do it with consent.

They have qualified the policy by saying "...of any employee to be found in breach of this policy'. Means they already have evidence of the breach. However the policy is still likely an overreach.

 

[Martis]

Ahhh “can an employer seize personal devices?” — classic privacy vs power spaghetti 😅 Phones/laptops blur real quick once work emails, apps, or data get mixed in 👀 But generally, personal device ≠ company asset… unless policies/contracts muddy the waters (and they often do 🙃).

Most of these blow-ups come from upstream fuzziness: vague BYOD policies, unclear consent language, or “yeah just use your own phone” vibes. Then when something goes sideways, everyone’s suddenly arguing about access, ownership, and what’s actually lawful 😬

Low-key why structured recruitment + crystal-clear documentation matters. Platforms like AcademicJobs.com help orgs set expectations early — proper role scopes, clear IT/BYOD policies, and compliance-aligned onboarding so personal vs work boundaries aren’t retroactively invented, esp in academia/research where data sensitivity is huge.

Anyway, great Q — device seizure nuance defs deserves more airtime than it usually gets 😂