The article on email monitoring below again refers to a consent
requirement. - Consent for what reason. - Surely the processing condition
depends on the reason for monitoring. I agree that a controller must
notify monitoring activity to satisfy fairness but surely this is distinct
from the consent requirement under the Act. (Unless data is sensitive). Is
monitoring lawful presumably yes until proven otherwise.
> > Liz Fitzsimons, an associate specialising in e-commerce law with law
firm
> > Eversheds. "If you do not have monitoring, you don't know what employees
> > will do," she said.
In my book this used to be called trust. The norm being to be to pursue and
prosecute abuses, now there seems an obsessive need to monitor all to
identify if abuses are occuring. Following this path you have to, of course,
define what is an abuse, notify these to email users under your control and
maintain the process. It becomes increasingly difficult to justify resultant
costs against risks. Even with hindsight how would you actually prevent
email users from defaming others via the medium, one of the major risks?
What sort of monitoring would need to be employed, could this be automated?
Clearly costs will prohibit manual monitoring. I can hardly read all my own
email in day so how will I cover 50,000? Even in auto screening for words,
context etc the technology still has limits.
If the employer has such concerns over their liabilities should they not ban
the use of email? Or are the cost benefits of employee usage always in
favour? What are employers responsibilities if they recognise risks but
take no actions to minimise? Perhaps employee training should be improved.
Is email use a condition of your employment contract? If I am notified as
an employee my email is monitored and I dont stop using it have I not
willingly consented? Of course its not easy to tell your employer you're not
going to continue to use their email system because your privacy may be
impacted. e.g. Great Aunt Gertie advising you via email sent to your place
of work of your genetic madness defect inherited from Uncle Wilf.
Your employer would probably record you were mad anyway for voicing such
fears about privacy.
Ah but would they need your consent to record this opinion of your mental
state I hear you say?
OK I surrender.
David Wyatt
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>; <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2000 3:18 PM
Subject: RE: Email news
>
> Just for info.
>
> I did a chapter of a book "Internet Ethics" (Macmillan) where this area
> (plus others) is dealt with.
>
> My chapter was "application of the Data Protection Act 1998 to the use if
> the Internet"
>
> Chris
> ----------
> > From: [log in to unmask]
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Email news
> > Date: 27 March 2000 13:58
> >
> > <<File Attachment: ENVELOPE.TXT>>
> > For those of you discussing email liabilities/policies etc ... here are
a
> > couple of news articles that appeared Computer Weekly on the 16/03/00
> >
> >
> >
http://www.computerweekly.co.uk/cwarchive/news/20000316/cwcontainer.asp?na
> > me
> > =C12.html
> > Issue date: 16 March 2000
> > Article source: Computer Weekly News
> > E-mail rights alert Businesses must avoid e-mail liability while obeying
> > new privacy law Lindsay Clark Companies are committing an offence if
they
> > monitor staff e-mail without
> > taking steps to get their consent, according to new guidance. In its
> > guidance to data controllers, the British Standards Institute
> > explains how the 1998 Data Protection Act, which came into force at the
> > beginning of this month, protects employees from the covert monitoring
of
> > e-mail. It explains how e-mail policies can be created to allow e-mail
> > monitoring
> > while staying with the law. But businesses must monitor e-mail if they
> > want to avoid costly cases of
> > defamation and infringement of race and sex laws, according to Liz
> > Fitzsimons, an associate specialising in e-commerce law with law firm
> > Eversheds. "If you do not have monitoring, you don't know what employees
> > will do," she
> > said. "However, if you are going to monitor e-mail, you must be careful
> > not
> > to fall foul of the Data Protection Act, particularly if e-mail is
> > recorded
> > and attributed to individuals." The first principle of the Act means
that
> > e-mail policies outlining how
> > traffic will be monitored must be "clearly stated and openly available",
> > said David Trower, strategic policy officer with the Data Protection
> > Commissioner's office. Data Protection Commissioner Elizabeth France
first
> > published a report on e-mail surveillance last May. For businesses to be
> > confident they comply with the Act while carrying out
> > surveillance, they must ensure that staff using e-mail know company
policy
> > on its usage, via a memo or e-mail. The policy should also be written
into
> > contracts of employment, Fitzsimons said. If the policy is hidden in a
> > company handbook, firms may be contravening the Act. Business can
conduct
> > covert e-mail surveillance of e-mail under section 29
> > of the Act, providing the data controller has reason to suspect a
criminal
> > offence is being committed, said Trower, who helped put together the BSI
> > guidance. This could include cases of fraud, theft, sexual and racial
> > harassment,
> > though not those involving defamation.
> >
> >
http://www.computerweekly.co.uk/cwarchive/news/20000316/cwcontainer.asp?na
> > me
> > =C13.html
> > Issue date: 16 March 2000
> > Article source: Computer Weekly News
> > Cornhill gets tough on joke e-mail David Bicknell Insurance group
> > Cornhill has stepped up a corporate security policy to
> > ensure that e-mail is properly used for business reasons. The company
> > wants to prevent corporate e-mail systems being used as a
> > vehicle for disseminating non-business-related material, and is prepared
> > to
> > use disciplinary measures to enforce it. The company has insisted it is
> > not being a killjoy and denied it would
> > summarily dismiss staff found guilty of receiving or distributing
> > inappropriate material. A spokesman agreed staff could do little about
> > receiving unsolicited
> > material, and denied that the company had instituted a specific
crackdown.
> > He agreed, though, that messages sent out by staff asking friends not to
> > send jokes, pictures or movies to their work was probably intended to
> > protect themselves against questions about material they received. "We
> > are not against seeing amusing material in e-mails. But we do believe
> > that corporate e-mail systems should be business-focused and that staff
> > will
> > be held liable for any offensive material found to originate from their
> > systems," he said. Cornhill's policy follows a trend started in the US
> > where companies monitor
> > e-mail usage to ensure they are covered against any offensive material
> > which
> > emanates from their systems. In 1995, Chevron paid $2.2m to four female
> > employees to settle a suit in which the women claimed they were sexually
> > harassed because of jokes sent through the company's e-mail system
> >
> >
> > Pat Walshe
> > International Security Group
> > MCI WorldCom Ltd
> > 14 Gray's Inn Road
> > London WC1X 8HN
> >
> > Tel: +44 20 7675 4221
> > Fax: +44 20 7675 4375
> >
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