What is an Acceptable Use Policy?

An Acceptable Use Policy is an official company statement on how it expects its own employees to conduct messaging on its own business email system.  The policy should detail the company's position on how its email users should conduct communication within and outwith the company - whether for business or personal use.  Before going into more detail on an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) we should look at the wider picture: that of email communication.

An Overview of Email Communication

The organisation has become reliant on email communication and has become embedded into an organisation’s communication structure to conduct business activities.

However, email communication is at serious risk: employers are, in some instances, failing to comply with current law, corporate policies are not being adhered to, expensive resources are being wasted, security breaches are occurring, and offensive/libellous email communications are being sent by employees.

These breaches must be taken seriously as offending organisations can, and have been, taken to court.  The latest publicised lawsuits only confirm that damage can be done to company brand, reputation, competence, alliances and customer relations.

Some organisations are failing, in parts, to legally comply in the filtering, monitoring and investigation of email communication, or are failing in the surrounding management practices or in the creation of legally sound corporate policies.

The key recommendations are that an organisation must firstly assess its own need for email communication, monitoring and policing of its email system by implementing an ‘impact assessment’ exercise, and then to make sure that all legal, management and user-centric issues are being addressed.  Only then can the organisation feel secure with using email technology to assist in achieving organisational objectives and regulatory compliance.