Ability to monitor employee email?

[Velvis]

I have a client who wants the ability to monitor an employee's work email (employee@company.com).

First they wanted to know if it was legal to do so.

It was my thought that the employee shouldn't have any expectation of privacy since it is a company email account and therefore it belongs to the company.

Anyone have an opinion or prior experience with this?

and part two of the question:

Is it possible to secretly monitor email on an Office 365 system?

Thanks.

 

[acscva]

They would probably want some type of internet usage policy in place for their employees.

I would recommend looking at Reflexion for their archiving solution which will work with office365.

Here is who you would contact to get setup for a trial of their service:

Peter Wendlandt
Channel Sales Manager
Reflexion Networks, Inc.
18 Commerce Way, Suite 4800
Woburn, MA 01801
o: (781) 569-6666 Ext 2212
pwendlandt@reflexion.net

Please tell him that I referred you.

 

[rsarceno]

Exchange Online provides the ability to access/review or keep a record of emails of other users. Ref: http://help.outlook.com/en-us/140/gg709759.aspx

Not sure if it's legal but I've seen employee handbook for both private and gov who specifically say they can access data stored company's computer's and servers at company's desecration.

I have provide this service and also testify the email print out is legit several times. No complaint form either party. The only question I was ask was who authorize the trace and how long was the backup retention. This was approx 15 yrs ago. The law might have change.

 

[Steve202]

I've used and highly recommend MailArchiva.

All you need to do is get the mail server to copy all emails to a mailbox (archive@company.com) and then get the MailArchiva software to pickup the email and archive is away.

 

[NETWizz]

I wouldn't tell them it is or it isn't... you aren't a lawyer.

 

[Velvis]

Yes, I definitely won't be dispensing law or being involved in getting the email.
I just wanted to get a feel for what other techs have be involved in.

I was hoping using an administrators account would give access and not get to complicated or involve 3rd party archiving etc.

 

[DocGreen]

Pretty sure it's legal... company owns the servers the email is stored on, therefore company also owns the email. There should be no expectation of privacy with company email, but like others have said it's probably best to have employees sign some kind of acceptable email use policy with a clause about emails being monitored at the company's discretion. I have one in place for my own company, but monitoring the emails for me is much simpler because my webhost provides the email server... I can just go to my hosting dashboard and as the administrator, open any email account I like without the account holder knowing.

 

[altrenda]

Pretty sure it's legal... company owns the servers the email is stored on, therefore company also owns the email. There should be no expectation of privacy with company email, but like others have said it's probably best to have employees sign some kind of acceptable email use policy with a clause about emails being monitored at the company's discretion. I have one in place for my own company, but monitoring the emails for me is much simpler because my webhost provides the email server... I can just go to my hosting dashboard and as the administrator, open any email account I like without the account holder knowing.

While you're probably right, I wouldn't like to bet my business on terms like "Pretty Sure" or "There should be no expectation". People are too quick to sue anyone involved

When clients ask questions like this, I say that technically there is a way to do what you want, but check with your lawyer, accountant, doctor, astrologer, whatever, to see if it is something you want to do.

Like the old saying, my lawyer doesn't do IT work and I don't give legal advice.