Employers reading your email

[tangerinedream]

The one thing I have been pulled up on was emailing a book I had written to a friend. Of course I guess that was taking the piss a tad, using work email to send a 200-odd page word doc that wasn't work related...

Why? It's not like you have to pay for postage on email is it?

 

[Yetman]

I've been sacked for this kind of stuff, the lad I sent the pics to got sacked as well, but he brought down another 10 people including managers etc who by default had to suffer the same fate - shot themselves in the foot there the twats

I have actually got some naughty stuff in my mailbox at my new job atm

 

[Loki]

Monitoring has to be proportionate for the business needs - employees have rights to privacy.

Fair enough, but from what I gather, the business can simply state that the monitoring was the only reasonable way of achieving their objective, after the fact, assuming an employee takes legal recourse in the first place.

It would be nigh on impossible to disprove the employer's argument I imagine, so in effect they have carte blanche legally, whatever any guidelines may state.

 

[subversplat]

At my first proper job, me and the boss used to surf the sick sites like rotten.com to try and out gross each other over e-mail In another computer job I did, the whole company were pirating half the Western world's software, music and films.

Don't work for big companies is the moral of this story, I think.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

What the fuck is an 'Acceptable Computer Usage Policy'?

I have a work email address and only use it for 'business' purposes...

But then I have no blocks on what internet sites I use so can quite easily - and do all the time - hop into my bt/yahoo account.

Reading this thread either people can't be bothered to do the same or are blocked from doing so...

What a shitty world of work many people live in....

 

[cesare]

Fair enough, but from what I gather, the business can simply state that the monitoring was the only reasonable way of achieving their objective, after the fact, assuming an employee takes legal recourse in the first place.

It would be nigh on impossible to disprove the employer's argument I imagine, so in effect they have carte blanche legally, whatever any guidelines may state.

If employers want to take the risk of an unfair dismissal or constructive dismissal claim by failing to follow the guidance on the legislation, that's a matter for them of course.

 

[tangerinedream]

What the fuck is an 'Acceptable Computer Usage Policy'?

I have a work email address and only use it for 'business' purposes...

But then I have no blocks on what internet sites I use so can quite easily - and do all the time - hop into my bt/yahoo account.

Reading this thread either people can't be bothered to do the same or are blocked from doing so...

What a shitty world of work many people live in....

Ours says basically: Do what you want with the interweb BUT don't do x,y and z (porn, racist sites and offensive material etc) AND be aware that we can watch you and look in yer inbox. It also says don't send harrrasing or bullying emails or download stuff that's illegal. It also says, that you can be kicked of the network if you are clogging it up for people who are trying to work.

You sign it then you get an account password.

 

[cesare]

Ours says basically: Do what you want with the interweb BUT don't do x,y and z (porn, racist sites and offensive material etc) AND be aware that we can watch you and look in yer inbox. It also says don't send harrrasing or bullying emails or download stuff that's illegal. It also says, that you can be kicked of the network if you are clogging it up for people who are trying to work.

You sign it then you get an account password.

Sounds pretty sensible imo.

 

[Divisive Cotton]

Ours says basically: Do what you want with the interweb BUT don't do x,y and z (porn, racist sites and offensive material etc) AND be aware that we can watch you and look in yer inbox. It also says don't send harrrasing or bullying emails or download stuff that's illegal. It also says, that you can be kicked of the network if you are clogging it up for people who are trying to work.

You sign it then you get an account password.

actually, that's fair enough - if the wording is specific to racism, porn - although terms like 'offensive material' would alarm me a bit...

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Why? It's not like you have to pay for postage on email is it?

Well true, but if there was something that they were going to pull me up on, that was a fair one.

And then there was the fact that I had spent many, many 'work hours' inf act writing my book. (although luckily they didn't know that!)

 

[tangerinedream]

actually, that's fair enough - if the wording is specific to racism, porn - although terms like 'offensive material' would alarm me a bit...

It's difficult though, because using a video hosting site to analyse an advert hosted there is fine, to watch a beheading host on the same site is not really fine at all. You've got to have some kind of common sense from the user too. You can't spell rules out in a crystal clear way cos the content of the internet is always changing.

I think everyone just gets a warning unless they have specifically broken the code by downloading porn or harrasing people anyway.

 

[GoneCoastal]

When I log in at work there is a warning popup that has to be OK clicked - basically stating that all computer assets (hardware/ software/ email/ network) are the property of the company and that they will only be used as allowed. It also states that email use is for business purposes only and there is no expectation of privacy AT ALL

Allowable is defined in the usage policy that all employees/ third parties/ subcontractors have to sign before they are allowed a login account and forms part of our contracts of employment

All web usage is monitored, all web-based mail is blocked as are IM programs

Installing IM programs, for example, is already considered to be gross misconduct

Only approved software is allowed and installed - soon - if unapproved software is found then then the PC will be prevented from connecting to the network until said software is removed. At this point a bollocking will happen. If it happens again it will be gross misconduct and disciplinary will follow

People have been disciplined for email and web misuse already and no comebacks so far

The corporate lawyers will have checked the policies etc and concluded that they are enforceable and that there isn't any recourse if ppl ignore them and get disciplined. Basically it's one warning then action on the 2nd offence (unless it's porn/racist/defamatory etc in which case it's out the door pronto!)

E2a: This for example is why companies are worried (old examples but still pertinent today)

Rolls Royce suspended 14 people and fired 5 who were caught sending porn around on the corporate network

In January 2001, UK insurance company Royal & Sun Alliance fired ten workers and suspended around seventy for forwarding inappropriate content including pornographic material via email. In November, Cable & Wireless dismissed six of its staff for email misuse

Chevron Oil Company settled an e-mail sexual harassment lawsuit for $2.2 million dollars. The suit was brought by a group of women employees that alleged a Chevron subsidiary allowed its internal email system to he used to transmit sexually offensive messages, including a "joke" sheet titled "25 reasons why beer is better than women."

 

[cybertect]

Why? It's not like you have to pay for postage on email is it?

but there is your computer, the network, mail servers and the internet connection to pay for.

 

[Kameron]

If your employer provides email as a work tool, they have every right to do what they want.

First off they can read it, they shouldn't unless there is a clause in your contract saying that you are not to expect privacy on you work email but they may read it anyway just they wouldn't be able to use it as evidence to sack you with or as the basis for any type of investigation. However the absence of such a clause in employment contracts is becoming rare. The Data Protection Act applies in the UK and there are similar laws in most of Europe that protect the employees right to privacy. Even in an investigation they would be expected to show that reading your email was a proportionate action.

If you are using a system that someone else provides, don't expect privacy. Use Hotmail or send form your own computer.

That doesn't make a huge amount of difference, depends who you work for and what they perceive the risks as bit if you work somewhere with access to information that might be of use in identity theft for instance web based email and online stores may be blocked or traffic with them logged in the same way as email is.

 

[tangerinedream]

but there is your computer, the network, mail servers and the internet connection to pay for.

Yes, but it doesn't cost anymore than if you hadn't sent that word document. Just seems churlish to me. Like sacking someone for using a radiator to dry their coat on or something. Technically you are using work's resources and they are obviously paying for the radiator, the heating bills and the room, but it doesn't cost them any more if you stick your coat on it or not.

 

[GoneCoastal]

Yes, but it doesn't cost anymore than if you hadn't sent that word document. Just seems churlish to me. Like sacking someone for using a radiator to dry their coat on or something. Technically you are using work's resources and they are obviously paying for the radiator, the heating bills and the room, but it doesn't cost them any more if you stick your coat on it or not.

Probably true-ish for a small business but multiply up to a company of the size of my employer (50k+ employees worldwide), then you have a huge storage cost and you can't just keep on adding disk space/servers to the network - so there's the cost!

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

When I was in the UK I only had internet at work, and I didn't use Urban much then because I worried they would pull me up due to its drugs content... Only started posting here a lot when i moved to china and got the interweb at home...

That was maybe overparanoid though?

 

[Giles]

The problem for companies is that they get flak both ways: if they don't restrict, log or monitor emails and web useage, they can get caught out by other staff claiming that they felt "harrassed" or "offended" by rude emails or people viewing naughty or offensive images on their screens. And they probably want to have a record of what people send out to customers, suppliers etc in case their is some dispute later about what was said, or ordered, etc.

If they do have a strict policy, people say that it is intruding on their privacy, and smacks of "big brother" etc etc.

The former is more potentially expensive to a company than the latter, so that's what they do.

Giles..

 

[Santino]

If someone sent me an internal letter marked Private and Confidential, using company stationery, would my boss be entitled to open it?

 

[Loki]

If someone sent me an internal letter marked Private and Confidential, using company stationery, would my boss be entitled to open it?

is a very good question!

The Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) apply specifically to electronic communications... or at least were drawn up with those in mind.

 

[Giles]

I used to work for a bank, and all inbound correspondence was opened by two members of staff, and THEN distributed to the recipient.

This was specifically to guard against potential staff fraud or theft - sometimes big cheques, title deeds, share certificates or even cash arrived in the post.

Giles..