E-mail+Monitoring

=What is E-mail Monitoring?=

toc Monitoring online discussions and e-mails between employees is a strategy used by almost all companies and businesses. Advocates justify this action by a desire for a more efficient, reliable and controllable workforce, while critics claim that such methods infringe on employees' privacy. Internal chatrooms, forums and discussion boards that are open only to employees are frequently used to communicate and debate projects and work-related assignments. It is approximated that about 2.8 billion e-mails are sent out inside the workplace from employers to employees. However, since many employees use the Internet to also check their private e-mails, more and more corporations are implementing spy software on company computers to be able to monitor all Inbox activities, including private e-mailing.

=7 reasons employers use to justify e-monitoring=

1. Maintain the company's professional image and reputation 2. Maintain employee productivity 3. Prevent/discourage sexual or other illegal workplace harrassment 4. Prevent "cyberstalking" by employees 5. Prevent possible defamation liability 6. Prevent employee disclousure of trade secrets and other confidential information 7. Avoid copyright and other IP infringement from employees illegally downloading software, etc.

Full Monitoring
There are several types of e-mail monitoring software, categorized by "full monitoring" and by "partial monitoring". Full monitoring checks for:
 * 1) The e-mail recipient;
 * 2) Thee-mail sender;
 * 3) The number of words in the e-mail;
 * 4) The time the employee spent reading e-mail;
 * 5) The time the employee spent composing e-mail;
 * 6) The number of attachments; and
 * 7) The type of e-mail - business-related or non-business related.

Is e-mail monitoring legal? Yes it is
Your company must give a written email to every employee in the company which sates that their emails will be monitored, which will give them the loss of having their own privacy. By doing this, it will help your company in court in case an employee decides to sue. But most importantly this will educate your employees on how to properly use their email. This may also help prevent many future issues and topics to be avoided when emailing. It is best when employees sign the email policy, this proves that the employee has read and understood the rules (Spykerman).

Partial Monitoring
Partial monitoring checks for:
 * 1) The employee name;
 * 2) The date; and
 * 3) The time the e-mail was picked up by the employee

=Privacy Rights=

Employees privacy rights alternate if they work for a public or a private sector, the later being less protected by the Constitution. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 is one of the state constitutions used to protect employees from overcontrolling employers. A legislation that is currently being put forward is the Notice of Electronic Monitoring Act, which is used to make employees aware that they are being monitored, by what methods, how often, etc.

=Works Cited=

1. Duke L. & Tech Review 0026. "Monitoring Employee E-mail: Efficient Workplace vs. Employee Privacy" (2001). http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2001dltr0026.html

2. Spykerman, Mike. __Is email monitoring legal?__ Available from [|http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:4Ru2TB59FE4J:www.policypatrol.com/docs/email-monitoring-article.pdf+email+monitoring&hl=en&gl=ca&ct=clnk&cd=1] [accessed at 25 February 2006].