Email / Internet Policy
rweubanks
2 Posts
Our organization has an email/ internet policy which outlines usage and privacy issues which we ask each employee to read and sign. Of course, this has not eliminated inappropriate use of the email and internet system but allows the company to take action if needed. However, the question of defining official business correspondence and unofficial correspondence is a hot topic at the moment.
In an effort to reduce exposure from casual correspondence, we are trying to establish guidelines for information that needs to be retained (official business) and information that needs to be deleted (unofficial business) as well as reinforcing appropriate use. Do you have any suggestions of resources we should be looking at to help with this clarification?
In an effort to reduce exposure from casual correspondence, we are trying to establish guidelines for information that needs to be retained (official business) and information that needs to be deleted (unofficial business) as well as reinforcing appropriate use. Do you have any suggestions of resources we should be looking at to help with this clarification?
Comments
We have a couple of policies in the Subscribers Area of this website if you subscribe to our Employment Law Letter in your state. In a nutshell they say, We will monitor what you do with our computer. If you don't want us to see it, use your own computer.
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/lc/[/url]
James Sokolowski
HRhero.com
The main objective we have is to eliminate inappropriate responses to clients and other receivers. Because it is virtually impossible to monitor every email message coming in and going out, we feel the best course of action is to define appropriate use and retention. If we can clearly define business (official) correspendence and which documents should be retained, we will have reduced the company exposure (somewhat) to other documents authored and retained on our system without our knowledge or consent.
So for instance, Employee X writes a negative review of a restaurant to Employee Y (in-house or outside company) that is not representative of our company's opinion but is on company email, and this email may or may not be forwarded, what kind of liability do we incur? Do we really want this saved to our server? If we do save this to our server do we (the company) accept the liability by means of merely unknowingly saving it and what other documents have we unknowingly saved?
As I said, I greatly appreciate your feedback. I know there are rules of discovery for computers and servers and that even if the information is deleted, with a skilled forensic computist, it can be retrieved. I am hoping to reduce our exposure to inappropriate use.