Lawsuits Over Employee Emails
Costly lawsuits and employee terminations resulting from email misuse are high on the list of employer concerns, according to HR Reporter.
The 2006 Workplace E-mail, Instant Messaging and Blog Survey by the American Management Association reports that 24% of organizations had employee emails subpoenaed, and 15% of companies went to court over lawsuits triggered by employee emails.
To make matters worse, the inability to produce the subpoenaed emails resulted in million-dollar lawsuits. And emails are not the only area of concern, as instant messaging, blogging and other computer activities unrelated to business may increase liability.
Nancy Flynn outlines some risks associated with blogging in her book Blog Rules: copyright infringement, invasion of privacy, defamation, sexual harassment, trade secret theft, security breaches and productivity drains. Flynn states, "The First Amendment only restricts government control of speech. It does not protect jobs." Employers eager to minimize risks associated with employee email, instant messaging and blogging should communicate clear policies about workplace computers.
We think the best way to protect yourself from liability and back up corporate
policy is to use employee monitoring software. You can monitor and record everything that happens on a computer, including recording emails and taking screenshots. So if employee emails are subpoenaed, you'll now have copies that are easy to access. For employees blogging on company time, WebWatcher's Website Recorder records websites visited, the time of day a site was visited, and the number of visits. You can even block websites on-the-fly with Content Filtering.
The bottom line is, the best protection against misuse of company networks is to communicate a clear policy to your employees and back up your plan with a computer activity monitor.
The 2006 Workplace E-mail, Instant Messaging and Blog Survey by the American Management Association reports that 24% of organizations had employee emails subpoenaed, and 15% of companies went to court over lawsuits triggered by employee emails.
To make matters worse, the inability to produce the subpoenaed emails resulted in million-dollar lawsuits. And emails are not the only area of concern, as instant messaging, blogging and other computer activities unrelated to business may increase liability.
Nancy Flynn outlines some risks associated with blogging in her book Blog Rules: copyright infringement, invasion of privacy, defamation, sexual harassment, trade secret theft, security breaches and productivity drains. Flynn states, "The First Amendment only restricts government control of speech. It does not protect jobs." Employers eager to minimize risks associated with employee email, instant messaging and blogging should communicate clear policies about workplace computers.
We think the best way to protect yourself from liability and back up corporate
policy is to use employee monitoring software. You can monitor and record everything that happens on a computer, including recording emails and taking screenshots. So if employee emails are subpoenaed, you'll now have copies that are easy to access. For employees blogging on company time, WebWatcher's Website Recorder records websites visited, the time of day a site was visited, and the number of visits. You can even block websites on-the-fly with Content Filtering.
The bottom line is, the best protection against misuse of company networks is to communicate a clear policy to your employees and back up your plan with a computer activity monitor.
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