Employee E-mails, IMs Must Be Tracked

[Family Ties Forever!]

Do you think this is going to far? Do you think this would be considered an invasion of privacy?

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Careful: Employee E-Mails, IMs Must Be Tracked

Posted: 7:50 am CST December 1, 2006

Washington -- U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say.

Discussion: How Do You Use Work Computers?

The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial.

The change makes it more important for companies to know what electronic information they have and where. Under the new rules, an information technology employee who routinely copies over a backup computer tape could be committing the equivalent of "virtual shredding," said Alvin F. Lindsay, a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP and expert on technology and litigation.

James Wright, director of electronic discovery at Halliburton Co., said that large companies are likely to face higher costs from organizing their data to comply with the rules. In addition to e-mail, companies will need to know about things more difficult to track, like digital photos of work sites on employee cell phones and information on removable memory cards, he said.

Both federal and state courts have increasingly been requiring the production of relevant electronic documents during discovery, but the new rules codify the practice, legal experts said.

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by _Jen_

Do you think this is going to far? Do you think this would be considered an invasion of privacy?

That is huge invasion of privacy, what is the next step? All phone calls at work must be recorded?

[Janice]

It doesn't seem right to me. I've long known that anything you do in the workplace belongs to the company. Your e:mail, voicemail, anything you use during work hours, using the company's equipment, belongs to them.

My husband knew a guy who was fired for looking at porn on the internet while on the job.