g is making our life easier, not having to send letter or faxes each time, it doesn’t guarantee a full confidentiality. There is nothing easiest, for a company, to read emails sent via its server. If a password allow a limited access to your email box on your PC, the message content itself is stored on the company server and is easily accessible there. And that’s the same for email being received. It is, as well, really simple for a firm to check your internet “surfing” provided your company has a firewall and a “checking access” tool (which is the case for 95% of companies). Your employer is able to check what site you visited, how much time you spent on those or even what you bought . It is not really complicated, don’t you think ?But what are the firm’s main reasons for such a supervision of emails and internet ? In fact, main concerns are the following :-access to pornographic material-time spent without working-sexual harasment -viruses risks-transfer of confidential information.Those concerns are partly justified, because an employee’s defective attitude with respect to the above mentioned, could lead to a legal liability for the company.Electronic supervision in numbersIn 2001, in the United States, 46.5% of firms were storing and reviewing email messaging while 62.8% were monitoring internet connections. About 76.4 % of those firms have disciplined employees in 2001 for misuse or personal use of office telecommunications, and 31% have dismissed individuals for those reasons. Two-thirds of companies did discipline employees for abuse of office email or internet connections, with 27 reporting dismissals for those reasons. Set boundaries between private life and supervision.How could this electronic supervision not interfere with each employee private life? In fact, that’s one of the main argument that could make an employee sue its company in case of dismissal. Even ...
