Aussie organisations must negotiate surveillance minefield

Australian employers engaged in the legitimate monitoring of the email and instant messaging activity of their employees have the potential to create a highly-charged and bitter industrial relations battleground if Australia were to follow European and North American trends.

That is according to Kim Duffy, managing director (Australia) of security research, products and services organisation Internet Security Systems' (ISS), who said that Australian business need to handle the introduction of sophisticated email, web and instant messaging filtering technology with extreme caution.

 "In Europe, more than half (56 percent) of firms now routinely monitor their employees' email messages while 61 percent centrally archive all emails. Almost 40 percent actively monitor Instant Messaging," said Duffy.

 "IT managers would be wise to consult with Human Resources managers, Industrial Relations advisors and their legal counsel as well as Public Relations managers if they are to gain the maximum benefit from the new technology," he said.

 Duffy said that while caution needs to be exercised, the need to screen email and web usage was a financial and governance issue that included corporate accountability, productivity losses, loss of critical internet bandwidth and reputation/brand management.

 “Losses from inappropriate Internet and email activity have already reached billion dollar proportions worldwide and they are set to increase exponentially by 2007. None of these figures, however, quantify the value of brand and reputation damage when inappropriate web/mail activity hits the headlines.

 "Australian business and government departments must approach web and mail filtering/monitoring with extreme caution. They must develop their IT policies by balancing the needs of the enterprise and an individual employee's right to privacy."

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