Forwarded From: darek milewski <darekm@cmeasures.com>
http://www.techserver.com/story/body/0,1634,38442-61939-449913-0,00.html
More companies spy on employee e-mail, survey says
NEW YORK (April 14, 1999 4:43 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - The
number of companies that snoop on their employees' e-mail, computer files
and phone calls is rising, a new survey shows, part of a corporate
backlash against inflammatory and potentially incriminating exchanges.
The share of firms checking e-mail rose to 27 percent this year from 20
percent in 1998 and 17 percent in 1997, said the American Management
Association survey released Wednesday.
Overall electronic monitoring of e-mail and other communications rose to
45 percent from 35 percent in 1997, the AMA said. But an average of 84
percent of companies that do monitoring tell their employees of the
practice. The financial industry, including banking, brokerage and
insurance firms, spied the most.
The AMA, a business trade group, polled its 1,000 members January through
March. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.
A key reason for the increased monitoring is that employees are concerned
that offensive messages could be used as evidence in court cases down the
road, observers say.
-o-
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Received on Thu Apr 22 11:34:38 1999