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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?name =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?name =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 -- This communication contains information which is confidential and may also be privileged. It is for the exclusive use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient(s), please note that any distribution, copying or use of this communication or the information in it is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately and then destroy any copies of it. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%