Monitoring Employees' use of Email and Internet

You may have heard of the problem a large London law firm had when an email with their name on it went around the city and then across the world, containing apparently very detailed praise of one of the lawyer’s 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 email 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 emails 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.

Contact Cousins Business Law for advice on this topic.

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