You may have heard of the problem a large London law firm had when an e-mail with their name on it went around the city and then across the world, containing apparently very detailed praise of one of the lawyers sexual abilities sent from the man’s girlfriend. She, shall we say, made it clear what awaited him on his finishing work! With a bit of bravado no doubt, he thought he’d copy it to a couple of his colleagues…..

It could be your business facing possible charges for distributing porn if you run a business and you’ve decided that e-mail is a good way for you to communicate with clients, suppliers and staff. You may have given your staff access to the Internet on all their PCs, to help them with their work. Everything’s great until you realise that your system is being abused. Staff have been sending salacious e-mails around the firm and some have been accessing dubious websites in their lunch break.

Protecting Your Business

Surely you have the right to find out how deep seated the problems are and take actions against those abusing your businesses equipment and the trust you’ve placed in individual members of staff?

Maybe not. It may in fact be too late. Unless you have an internal ‘Code’ for the use of things like the ‘phone and Internet there may be very little you can do.

What is an internal ‘Code’?

As a rule we recommend that you have an internal ‘Code’ for the use of the ‘phone and Internet. The ‘Code’ should be agreed with your workers, at least make sure they all know of it. You should set out what is allowed and what is not.

The ‘Code’ should set out how you will monitor emails, Internet and ‘phone usage. And obviously you should monitor only the things set out in the ‘Code’. You’re only allowed to monitor where there is a legitimate business reason.

Pitfalls to avoid

Do not use any personal information collected as part of your monitoring unless your ‘Code’ sets out the fact that you will, and for what. So if for example you were to find out they were dangerously ill, decide now what you’d do with that information.

Do not monitor all the time unless there is clear evidence an employee is doing something in breach of the ‘Code’. Otherwise, just monitor randomly - provided that is not unfairly targeted at a particular person or body of people.

As always with Data, make certain you have the proper technical protection of that data, to ensure it’s safekeeping, and confidentiality.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.