Re: Corporate e-mail policy

["Douglas R. Floyd" <dfloyd@IO.COM>]

> 
> At 11:22 PM 8/3/96 -0400, Rabid Wombat wrote:
> 
> > What you 
> >publish as a use policy, and what you actively enforce do not have to be 
> >the same.
> >
> 
>   Unfortunately this is a problem in many companies.  There are policies
> which are enforced to the letter, guidelines which are just suggestions,
> and fake-rules which are not even attempted to be enforced.
> 
>   The problem comes when the employee and employer can't distinguish
> them from each other.  
> 
>   Personally I think I would approach it as the privacy we have with the
> eontents of our car's trunk.  If an officer has probable cause to search
> the trunk then he can, otherwise he can't.  It's not a perfect system but
> it does work better than other alternatives I can think of.
> 
>   Write into your policy:
>     "Electronic mail may be monitored if there is sufficient reason to
>      believe that it is being improperly used which includes, but is not
>      limited to: mail to competitors, more than 20 recipients (spam), and
>      incoming mail from questionable sources.  If such monitored mail is
>      encrypted the employee must provide a clear text version of the mail
>      which is to be unencrypted under supervision to avoid substitutions.
>      Any employee refusing to make available such mail will be ...."

Personally, a policy may save or cause lots of money in losses.  My
recommendation:  Have an attorney look your policy over, or have him/her
write it for you.

It may cost some money, but may possibly save your company.