In principle, the content of private correspondence (including emails and text messages) is subject to letter confidentiality and cannot be disclosed by the addressee without the sender’s consent, as this would interfere with the protection of personality. However, there are exceptions to this rule in case law. In the present case, the two rights of protection of personality clash - on the part of the writer it is the secrecy of the letter, on the part of the addressee it is the right to privacy. Both rights fall under the right to protection of personality. Where such rights clash, or where both rights are infringed, the so-called proportionality test is applied, where it is examined whether the infringement of one right was justified by the fact that the other right was infringed - if this result is positive, the court would not, in the event of litigation, find the infringement of the right to protection of letter confidentiality to be a capable interference with the writer’s right to protection of personality. It also makes just as much difference to whom the communication is disclosed - in the case of an employer, such action may be justified (the employer can and should address such situations), but this may no longer be the case if the communication is disclosed to colleagues. The outcome of the proportionality test is always individual and cannot be fully generalised. Therefore, in order to answer the question in question, it is necessary to know the overall situation as well as the content of the communication.

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Odpoveď spracovaná podľa aktuálneho právneho stavu ku dňu 6. 7. 2024.