Employee privacy rights on company issued phone...

Maybe they do, since they're paying for the phone and it's supposed to be used for business purposes. But maybe they don't. Is your company private or government? Are you sure there's no company policy about using company property for personal reasons? Are the calls and texts you're asking about personal communications, on company time, in the workplace? Do they involve your communications with your lawyer? Those facts matter. In general, where there's a reasonable expectation of privacy, you have privacy rights, and where you don't, you don't, and generally, workplace communications aren't private. You shouldn't have anyone send personal mail to you at your office, and you shouldn't conduct and store personal communications on your employer's phone and computer. But there are at least two recent CA court rulings protecting employee communication privacy rights, even where the communications aren't things an employer would want employees doing with company property: In 2007, a CA federal appellate court in U.S. v. Ziegler held that an employee caught viewing child porn on his work computer had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the computer because it was stationed in his locked office. The court stated more generally, “in the private employer context, employees retain at least some expectation of privacy in their office.” In 2006 A federal district court in CA held that a police officer had a reasonable expectation of privacy in salacious text messages exchanged with his girlfriend using a department-issued pager. Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co., 445 F.Supp.2d 1116 (C.D. Cal. 2006). The fact that the department had a written policy prohibiting personal use of company property was irrelevant since the department had communicated an unwritten policy of not auditing the text messages except when an officer disputed charges for overages. Disclaimer: Please note that this answer does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied on, since each state has different laws, each situation is fact specific, and it is impossible to evaluate a legal problem without a comprehensive consultation and review of all the facts and documents at issue. This answer does not create an attorney-client relationship.