Ian,
Come on, now!!!!!!!!! It would be ludicrous to tell people that if they mark their emails 'Personal' they will not be read in any circumstance. Clearly every 'bad egg' divulging trade secrets or whatever could then simply mark his email 'personal' and be totally protected - a ludicrous situation.
Surely if you have told people up front that their 'private' emails may in certain circumstances be monitored/opened you have shown the reasonable respect for privacy required by HRA. Your (? sarcastic) option of saying 'there is no such thing as a private email on our system' is a rose by any other name.
No, it cannot be guaranteed that an innocent, very private, legitimately written and sent email would never be read by someone the sender would not wish to see it. But no system is perfect!! If carried out correctly, the likelihood of the above scenario (legitimate, private email being read) is very small, and the reader would still be bound by any number of rules and regulations as to what he could do with that information and severe penalties for misusing it. The sender has to bear some responsibility for what he puts in his emails if he knows full well there is an outside chance it may be read.
Dave U
South Gloucs
>>> <[log in to unmask]> 09/03/2001 08:27:16 >>>
In a message dated 08/03/2001 14:38:30 GMT Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< We allow reasonable personal use -
"The Council e-mail facilities are provided primarily for business
use. However a limited, reasonable amount of personal, private use will be
allowed: this personal use should be in your own time where possible, but
occasional, reasonable use in work-time is permitted. Personal use should
be restricted to short messages, and you must not include attachments to
personal e-mail circulated within the Council."
>>
-------------------------
Colin
Never mind the word "occasional" being open to interpretation - the big
problem here is using the word "private". Article 8 of the ECHR talks about
a private life and if you are telling staff they can send private e-mails
they must remain just that - private. If you intercepted and read the
contents of one of these you are likely to be in breach of the HRA 98.
Better to leave that word out - or better still tell staff "there is no such
thing as a private e-mail on our systems".
Ian B
MD
Keep IT Legal Ltd
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