Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Acceptable Use Policy and Privacy

We discussed the issue that I've linked to (below) in my 508 class last night. The gist of the story is that a woman is suing her company. As she was about to leave her company, she used her personal web-based email to communicate with her lawyer. The company recovered her emails in a forensic investigation. She claimed that the company's acceptable use policy said that reasonable use of the internet was ok, and as such, she should have been afforded privacy. An appellate court agreed with her.

Here's the story.

I brought this up at the company I'm working at, and the CIO said "no way, couldn't happen." I think companies need to take a hard look at their acceptable use policies if this appellate court decision is going to stand. Further, if it does, look for casual, reasonable use of the internet to disappear; which probably won't sit well with employees.

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