One of the most important aspects, at least legally, is to write an acceptable use policy for corporate email and resources. Just because the resources belong to a company, one cannot automatically assume that everything an employee does is privy to the company managers and administrators. There's still some semblance of privacy rights in many countries.
You, as the IT administrator or manager, need to clearly write down what an employee can and cannot do. Also, another important aspect is to declare what penalties exist if an infraction occurs. As an example: "We, as the company, own the resources and expect each and every employee to follow company policies and procedures regarding acceptable use of said resources...and we will from time to time audit usage of company resources to include email correspondence." Most importantly, when writing an acceptable use policy, consult with your corporate attorney to hammer out the legalese. -----Original Message----- From: chris [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: February 25, 2003 02:16 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: e-mail policies > Dear gurus > > We are defining policies for the use of corporate e-mail, I have doubts > about privacy of messages sent by employees. Since the e-mail system is > intended for business use, we need to prevent sensitive information > disclosure. If we respect the privacy , how can discover infidelity > employee? > What is your opinion or the standard in this cases? What is the > companies approach? > > Thanks a lot. > > -- > Pablo A. C. Gietz > Jefe de Seguridad Informática > Nuevo Banco de Entre Ríos S.A. > Te.: 0343 - 4201351 Hi Although I'm not a guru, I'll give you my opinion (probably not the standard ;). Define strict policies. Make it clear that the corporate e-mail is not for personal use. Why? Because studies on the use of corporate e-mail show that the productivity, in many cases, is decreased. Sending personal e-mail to colleagues or people outside the corporation generates expectations on reply, and results in the habit of checking for new mail very often, and therefore interrupts work. There you go - no need for privacy anymore. Now you can install e-mail filters, e.g. based on words that's not acceptable in corporate messages, and bust infidel employees. - chris
