Should Companies monitor or intercept employees' e-mail? why or why not?

Answer 1

Why not the government can!

Answer 2

If the company owns the equipment and they are paying for the network connection then they have the legal right to restrict use of the equipment to work related activity. They do have the legal right to monitor the network for unauthorized use of company resources. It would be the same as monitoring the telephone lines to make sure employees aren't making personal long-distance phone calls. Where I work one person was fired for spending more than half the work day forwarding cutsie-pie e-mails to all her friends and family. There was nothing wrong with the e-mails, but she was hired to do office work and it wasn't getting done.

Besides the loss of productivity issue, there's also potential legal issues. If an employee uses company resources for illegal downloads the company can be sued. If the email system is used for spam or harassment likewise the company can be held liable.

Most network administrators are too busy to read every email that crosses the network. Instead they set up automatic filters that look for certain keywords such as "sex", "xxx", etc. They may also filter certain activities such as music and video downloads. These filters are used in conjunction with thresholds. That means the violations have to be repeated many times before an alarm goes off. So if you misspell something you won't be automatically yelled at.

In legal terms this monitoring is part of "due dilligence". If an employee does something illegal using company resources but the company can show that they were using due dilligence in an attempt to prevent illegal activity then the company cannot be held liable.

Answer 3

They need to keep track of the emails to ensure that the employee is being faithful to the company. An employer must be careful that their trade secrets are not being leaked and that the email account which they have given their employees is not being abused for reasons other than work related.

In a more personal setting where the employer and employee work closely this hard line is relaxed and personal emails are often allowed due to the increased trust between the employer and employee. But even in this case it is important to monitor the emails which are out going etc.

Ethically it is an invasion of privacy to be reading personal emails. But if the employee were obeying the guidelines set out by the employer perhaps they would not receive largely personal emails and only work related material would be flowing through the email account. If it becomes necessary to receive these type of emails then the employer would have the right to accept or decline that offer.

In short the email given by employers is given under the condition that the employee is using that account as he/she has specified and not in any other way. The email would be property of the company and therefore the employee must treat it as such and be careful not to breach the conduct rules which the employer has outlined.

Answer 4

Yes companies have the right to monitor and intercept employee's email usage because:
1) The company owns the equipment you are using to send your emails.
2) Employee's are on company time and emails created on company time are property of the company.
3)Companies usually tell employee's who have internet access that they are being monitored and given contracts to sign saying that they know the rules of emailing between people inside and outside the company.
From a company point of view it works out pretty good. But if you use the companies network for personal business than you get in big trouble.

Answer 5

Not only do they have the right, they have the responsibility to monitor an employee's email.

When an employee sends an email from his corporate email account, he is representing his company. The company's name is in the email address. If he is doing something offensive or illegal, his company gets the PR hit. People will look at the employee and think "If this is the kind of person working for XYZ Corporation, I wouldn't want to do business with them"

Answer 6

Sorry, but Yes ...
1)The email server is owned by the company, therefore it is a company asset
2)The email is also a company asset for the same reason, it is not a persoanl account
3)The computers at the compnay are also company assets, so the are not to be used for personal business
4)The company is liable if their email or servers are used in violation of comunications laws
5)YOU are a company asset too(when at work) and are therefore an agent of the company so anything you do can also cause liability for the company
6) ALL information crossing the company data lines are also company assets and should be protected from industrial spying
7) ... did you notice that nothing going on here does NOT belong to the company?

Answer 7

Should they?
Yes, they should

Why?
Because too many people are using company resources for their own purposes... which may be as simple as sending personal emails, or may be more complex and risky... banking, gambling, IM'ing, all of which carry security risks.
Or, they may actually be involved in transactions which are illegal - for which the company could be liable - or otherwise harmful to the company.

Somebody's just been awarded over $11M in damages for what was said about them in a blog... If the defamatory comments had come from a big-company email address, I'm sure the award would have been a lot bigger, and directed against the company for allowing their resources to be used in such a way... and a defence of "We didn't know" isn't going to get very far.

That's why,

Answer 8

If a person is using a company computer, on the companies time, with the companies internet service provider paid for by the company, then YES.

If not then NO.

They have a right to know what is being done or said by a person they are paying to do a job that could be letting out company secrets or stealing from the company.

Answer 9

If you have never owned a business or were never a loyal employee, then you will not understand......
.Anymore, I say yes to this question..Here's why...........
There are so many employees robbing their company blind..
If everyone took a pencil(as trivial as that may sound) then depending on the number of employees, that could be very costly. Especially since it goes on everyday......They are to be used in the office,,not taken home......Buy your own!
2.......By monitoring employees, companies can see how right they were to think that Tom, Dick and Karen were goofing off on the job most of the day,,,,,,,,,,,,and one of them says he worked overtime when clearly he didn't...In fact he left 1.1 hours earlier than he should.............
3.........As far as the e-mail checking, of course. Sorry to say, but most people do more than their job on their computers....
Again, your employer is not paying you to check your own personal e-mails......Time is money, and money is time......
That is why as much as I have always wanted my own business, I knew I would have to spend so much time, or hire people to do this kind of work for me...not worth it....People, at least 1/2 in the work place cannot be trusted.....Many dishonest ...its the .Truth

Answer 10

Yes. I don't feel that an employer should fire someone over a quick email to his wife about what they would like to have for dinner that evening. But employers should be able to monitor for excessive use of email for non-work-related purposes. If I painstakingly forfeited years of my life to build up a company, I would feel it is my right to choose to review what my employees are doing with the internet service that I pay for on the computer I paid for while I am paying them to work.

Answer 11

Employees should be monitored. Email can create real problems for a business. Generally, email should be avoided unless being used to communicate with a known adversary. Look at Enron, sunk by emails. MicroSoft got burned with an email by an employee too. Emails are vry dangerous for a business.