Employee Internet use can be both beneficial and detrimental

For many employees, email and the Web are indispensable business tools.

When you give your employees internet access, you give them a resource that has the potential to reap enormous business benefits.

But it also has enormous potential to be misused and – in some instances – that misuse can be damaging for the business.

We all have our favourite story about that highly inappropriate email that got into the public domain causing huge embarrassment to both the business and the individuals concerned.

There are also examples of employee blogs that have in some cases resulted in the blogger being dismissed.

One of the earliest cases in UK was that of Ellen Simonetti, a flight attendant, whose “Queen of Sky” blog about her experiences led to her being fired by Delta Air Lines for content that they deemed inappropriate.

The problem is that often people ‘’say” things in email and on-line which they might not otherwise feel comfortable communicating to others in person.

A combination of informality coupled with a lack of inhibition creates a potentially dangerous situation.

What might start out as a jokey email can result in a defamation action.

In one such case, in an out-of-court settlement Norwich Union paid £450,000 to Western Provident Association because of libellous comments on its internal email system about Western Provident Association’s alleged financial problems.

Email is also a common feature in workplace harassment cases.

While it is often one employee harassing another, under the Sex Discrimination Act, the employer can be liable for acts of his employees, whether or not done with the employer’s knowledge or approval.

Breaching confidentiality

Aside from corporate embarrassment and bad publicity, poor IT governance can have an immediate financial impact.

In July 2009, The Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined HSBC over £3 million for not having adequate systems and controls in place to protect their customers’ confidential details from being lost or stolen.