Risk Management of Email and Internet Use in the Workplace

Abstract

The article surveys the changing risk environment for corporations from their employees' electronic communications. It identifies the types of liabilities that corporations can incur from such employee communications. It discusses the objectives of corporate internet use policies and the types of provisions such policies should contain. It suggests an alternative risk-based approach to corporate acceptable use policies instead of a traditional "laundry list" of internet use prohibitions. Keywords: email acceptable use policies, internet risk management, corporate networks, liability for corporate communications, duty to retain emails, liability for employee acts