jase555

Question for you,

company email can be used for personal use within reason,

have found someone of higher position than me in company snooping through logs etc,

myself pretty liberal on usage not bothered unless its really bad or stupid, then I kick the persons butt of the record

with regards to data protection act,

can the company snoop at the contents of personal email ?

thanks

jase

richs2891

To answer your question Can the company look at personal e-mails, then the answer is yes.
All companies should have a computer uasage agreement which you have to sign to say read it / agreed to the terms etc, it should cover the likes of acceptable internet usage and e-mail usage. They are done to cover the compnay from a legal point of view if you decide to post / e-mail something deflamatery about someone else / another company.
Its quite common for mangamant to look at peoples e-mails etc especially if want to try and get rid of them (have been on both sides of this), That is why I never use a works supplied e-mail for anything other than work, only time I would send non work e-mails they would be encrypted so the casual snooper could not read it.
Data protection act is a bit vague when it comes to work enviroment and it generally get interperted however the person belives they can get away with it. Most argument revolve around it was done on the companies equpitment so the compnay has the right to read it.

Richard

sillysi

This is one of the biggest grey areas in the workplace at the moment, there is going to be guidelines from the Goverment but they keep being delayed due to the complexety (SP?) of the subject. At work we look at it like this...

Don't worry too much about acceptable use policies, unless they have been drawn up by a lawyer with full knowledge of the data protection act and other laws regarding personal privacy they won't hold up in a court of law. A company is not allowed to read your personal e-mails unless they get your permission and this is for each individual e-mail, if any one is found reading your personal e-mails they should be prosecuted. Always put PERSONAL in the subject of your personal e-mails so it is quite clear they are personal. Work related e-mails can be opened by your company without your permission this is why it is essential you identify your personal messages. I was involved with the setting up of our policy at work and I monitor the e-mail system so have good knowledge on this one. I know that our poicy would not stand up in a court of law but we have to show that we are doing something.

Nog

Mmmmm.... agree, dodgy area.

Agree with some of what sillysi says, as I'm in a similar position in my co. We ran our I.T and Communications policy past our legal department at each draft (and now do so following each revision), and they feel it stands up against [current] employment law. We've also had to include a number of clauses to satisfy the lawyers in our U.S parent company, which makes it interesting reading.

We are pretty clear with the wording though, and do not allow any personal use.

Reasons why companies NEED to check e-mail entering and leaving their domain:

i) Virus / trojan / worm content
ii) Licenced software (i.e.: need to ensure licencing isn't being breached)
iii) Intellectual property rights / competitive info / privilleged info (are employees letting out secrets)
iv) Pornography - it's an offence to store pornographic material on your file servers, NAS boxes, backup tapes, Etc

One thing is clear though. If you do have a policy, all employees must know about it, and have access to it (we sent ours out in the pay slips, and have it on-line at work).

Cheers

Nog

Soulgirl

I work for a very prominent private health insurer and we have a very plain and precise internet/email usuage policy.

They can access our emails at any time for it may be that we are not in work and a businesss email has been sent to our inbox. Of course they need to retrieve it.

As intimated above - if it's private, personal, defamatory or inappropriate - don't send it or receive it by way of your works email. Fools