Not only must this information
appear on all your official letters and forms, it must also be displayed
clearly on your web site and on all emails.
Changes in January 2007 to the
Companies Act 1985 clarified these requirements and
non-compliance can lead to your company being fined. These
changes, which have come about as a result of an European
Directive, apply only to limited liability organisations;
partnerships and sole traders are not affected.
Optional information:
confidentiality notices
Some
organisations add a confidentiality notice to every outgoing
email. If the disclosure of the content of an email
becomes the subject of a dispute, it can be argued legally that
the recipient should have known to not disclose the information.
However, there
is no legal authority for this and there is always a risk that a
court might reject the notice as ineffective, particularly where
the notice is added automatically to every outgoing email.
Where
organisations use confidentiality notices they have a
better prospect of standing up in court if they appear above the
body of a message.
Optional information:
disclaimers
Disclaimers are
often added to all outgoing emails but they should be written
with care. What you attempt to disclaim will depend on the
nature of your business and if your disclaimer is too wide it
will not be supported by the courts
Seek legal
advice to maximise the effectiveness of your disclaimer.
Optional information:
monitoring
If your
organisation monitors some email traffic data, your outgoing
emails should say: “[Organisation name] may monitor email
traffic data.”
If your
organisation also monitors email content, you should say: “[Organisation
name] may monitor email traffic data and also the content of
email for the purposes of [security and staff training].“
The primary
legislation governing the monitoring of business email is the
Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) Regulations 2000.
Other relevant laws include EU rules and UK legislation such as
the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Regulation of Investigatory
Powers Act 2000.
These rules
require organisations to give correspondence writers and readers
warning of the monitoring you carry out. You should take legal
advice on any monitoring of communications that your
organisation conducts.
The statements above
can help your organisation to reduce the risk of a successful
claim for unlawful monitoring of your organisation’s email data
but you should be aware that such statements have never been
tested in court and therefore any monitoring will carry some
degree of risk.
Sandy Pratt will be delighted to discuss how to establish and
manage email monitoring and disclaimers. You can contact him by
email at
Sandy.Pratt@4-consulting.com.
Sandy Pratt is a director of 4-consulting,
click here to view his profile.
