Policy and Rules on Internet and Email Use
1. The laws on employment relationship and on electronic communications, and the doctrine of vicarious liability entail risk for the Company in that it allows employees access to the internet.
The policy and rules that follow are intended to –
a) manage this risk;
b) guide employees of the Company, and others who have access to it, as to what is acceptable; and
c) serve as a guideline for disciplinary actions.
2. This policy proceeds from the following accepted points of departure –
a) this policy and these rules recognize the constitutional right to privacy;
b) nobody may use a Company facility (this includes email accounts, offices, phones, cellphones, or fax lines) for excessive private or personal purposes for which prior permission has not been obtained, and, unless payment is made for the use of the facility. Use for personal or private work purposes is a privilege not a right and it follows that this privilege may be withdrawn.
c) Senior Executives of the Company must have regard to the extent to whether, and if, which public communications could/can be divorced from their offices; i.e. the extent to which such Executives can enter the public domain in their personal, as opposed to office-related, capacities.
d) nobody may use –
i. any Company letterhead;
ii. or any Company designation (including a Company designation in an electronic signature)
for private communications or for private work (even if approved private work).
3. Policy and rules: privacy and access to electronic records
The Company reserves the right to interrogate electronic records held by the Company, but this right will not be exercised without the written permission of the Chief Executive Officer following due process involving consultation by the Chief Executive Officer, which may or may not include obtaining legal opinion, for good cause shown, without a court order or summons, or in compliance with a request for a copy of a record made under the Promotion of Access to Information Act.
4. General policy and rules on internet and email use
The following policies and rules on internet and email use do not in any way derogate from the imperative that employees play their part in ensuring that they not do anything, or cause anything to be done that would jeopardize the integrity of the Company’s systems, and their use to support the Company’s work.
a) the computer equipment and resources provided by the Company to its employees remain Company property at all times;
b) private use of such equipment or resources is permitted to the extent that
i. it is not excessive;
ii. it is not for personal gain unless prior written permission has been obtained, and unless payment is made for the use;
iii. if by a staff member it does not interfere with the performance of his or her duties as a staff member;
iv. it does not expose the Company to any legal liability; and
v. it does not impair the rights of other employees of the Company community.
c) the Company retains the right to monitor traffic on all data lines owned or leased by the Company;
d) the Company reserves the right to restrict or otherwise control the use of any of the internet protocols (This right to restrict may include the right to set a limit on individual usage by bandwidth and/or volume for individual employees);
e) any act of publication by means of any internet protocol expressing a personal opinion must where relevant reflect this fact;
5. The following practices are prohibited
a) viewing, storing, downloading or forwarding images, moving images, sound files, texts or recordings that are sexually explicit or sexually suggestive, racist, harassing, intimidating or defamatory, except where this is both legal and there is demonstrable business need to access or distribute such content;
b) hacking in any form, including gaining or attempting to gain access to restricted resources either inside or outside of the Company’s computer network;
c) impersonating another user or another person;
d) damaging or deleting files of another user;
e) obtaining without authorization the access codes and/or passwords of another user;
f) software piracy, or other infringement of intellectual property rights in digital content;
g) the sending, whether on the internal email system or externally, of bulk unsolicited mail, commercial advertising of other businesses, mail-flooding, or excessive cross postings on newsgroups (called spam);
h) the use of any computer resource to promote any business or enterprise, except that of the Company, unless such use is explicitly permitted by an agreement between the employee and the Company;
i) issuing of unsolicited email to indicate or gain support for any religious or political purposes.
j) connecting a modem to the Company telephone network without written authorization from Management;
k) use of a PC connected to the Company network without running virus detection software.
l) access, during working hours, of any of the prohibited websites or domains listed in Annexure A, which will be reviewed periodically.
6. Employees have a duty not to load the Company’s internet connection with private traffic unnecessarily.
7. Violations of this policy will be handled in accordance with procedures established for employee discipline.
I declare that the following was explained to me and I acknowledge that I understand and accept the contents.
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Name Signature Date
Policy and Rules on Internet and Email Use – Annexure A
In addition to the general nature of the Company Policy and Rules on Internet and Email Use, access to the following websites and domains are specifically prohibited during working hours. Failure to adhere to this will result in an immediate Letter of Warning being issued.
1. Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, and all social connection or chat sites;
2. Skype; unless for official business calls
3. You Tube;
4. All on-line gambling sites;
5. All on-line games sites;
6. Au
7.
