E Mail security on company server

[Gulfstreamaviator]

I am concerned that E Mails between myself, sent via the company server to my wife, have been intercepted by the company CEO, and kept for use against me at a later date.

I know of three companies here in the ME, that monitor all E Mails, and the interesting ones are kept on file.

Question: I assume that anything is legal over here, and there is no such thing as privacy. Is this correct.

How can a company monitor these communications, I would appreciate directing to the section of the server help file.

glf

[srobarts]

It depends on what mail server your company is running. I have adminstered Lotus Domino servers for some companies. Domino has a journalling facility which keeps a copy of every inbound and outbound email. Companies will use this for their own protection. In the UK a company can be liable for the emails sent from their server by one of their employees. They therefore need to access emails that may have been deleted from an individuals mail box. The volume of traffic generally means that it is only used to find specific emails rather than all traffic being monitored and read. Always send mail assuming that mail can be read.
I always advise people to have a personal email (hotmail, googlemail, yahoo or what ever). Don't use the company email for personal messages.
Your employer should have an internal IT policy that says what you may use company IT for and what they monitor.
Many companies also track which websites you visit.
My golden rule is never write anything that you would not be prepared to hear read out in public. Don't visit websites from company or other peoples pc's that you don't want people to know that visit.

[Ancient Observer]

Every Co. does it......

You should get no surprises.
Every Co. of any size and every public sector employer in the UK can and most do record every e-mail. It is easy to do, and it is a defence against future possible legal cases.
The vast majority know exactly where you've been on the net, too.

[Jofm5]

You should get no surprises.
Every Co. of any size and every public sector employer in the UK can and most do record every e-mail. It is easy to do, and it is a defence against future possible legal cases.
The vast majority know exactly where you've been on the net, too.

In the UK the employer has to notify the employee if they are going to intercept their mail - failure to do this could leave the company open to litigation (Unless gross misconduct has been identified). However a company may store (not read) any of your correspondence in case a business related issue arise whereby they will require the authors permission should they still be with the company. Most companies have the provision for reading of mail within the employment contract nowadays.

Email is a business tool, and as such can be viewed as a tool provided by and owned by the business - the way to keep your privacy is to use one of the plethora of web based mail accounts. Another way to keep your mail private would be to PGP encrypt any personal mail.

[Ancient Observer]

They probably told you.....

They probably told you about their recording/reading of your e-mails and use of the internet when you first used the service - they say something like "the conditions of using this are" and buried in page 5 of the small print is their right to monitor.
I agreer that Co.s will sometimes put it in to contracts, but not always.
We agree on the basic point - it's all theirs!

[BladePilot]

glf,
be very careful. I know of individuals in the ME who have been given the oneway Business Class ticket home and as part of the 'clearing the desk' process their desktop / laptop has been 'siezed' immediately by IT and a copy of the hard disk made before they have been given leave to depart on that big silver bird! The copy is held or used as evidence whilst the desktop / laptop is scrubbed clean and recycled onto some new employee, probably the one that gets the vacant position!

If you use a company desktop or laptop anything on it can be claimed by the company as can any emails sent or recieved using their server and your company issued email address. I think you'll find the same rules are applied in most countries.

Blade.

[Jofm5]

They probably told you about their recording/reading of your e-mails and use of the internet when you first used the service - they say something like "the conditions of using this are" and buried in page 5 of the small print is their right to monitor.
I agreer that Co.s will sometimes put it in to contracts, but not always.

Entirely correct, my experience is that alot of contracts now have it in - but the legal obligation on the company is that you are notified prior to any interception - so being in the contract is not a necessity, this notification can take form of memo or email or indeed any "reasonable" notification.

Cheers