Email Acceptable Use Policy

The social media policy is another document that helps a company to manage the online behaviors of its employees. The policy covers personal social media accounts as well as the management of corporate social media accounts. As it happens, an employee can unwillingly damage the reputation of a company by posting something controversial on social media. Either that or they could accidentally (or perhaps deliberately) disclose confidential information that is of value to the company. Setting up a clear and forceful social media policy can protect a company's image as well as any potentially sensitive information. Nowadays, most companies make sure to create a social media policy.

The corporate email disclaimer is a message of advanced disavowal that accompanies all emails sent through a company’s corporate email accounts, usually below the signature line. It may warn that the email may contain sensitive or confidential information, for one. It may also warn against the reuse of any copyright materials or trade secrets, for another. The disclaimer aims to prevent further distribution or duplication of corporate email content. As an aside, it may also serve to remind employees to not use work email for personal matters.

First, it is important to alert employees to watch out for any unknown links and to avoid clicking on them at all costs. If the sender is unknown, the common rule is to not open any attachments. Crucially, employees should never disclose any customer information via email, or at least when absent of encryption.

The email retention policy is part of the Email Acceptable Use Policy. Some companies choose to incorporate this rule in particular in anticipation of a breach. The policy explains that all sent and received emails will be kept for a certain number of days. It is essential to inform employees of this rule so they can behave accordingly. The email retention policy can be highly helpful in the event of a dispute as it can be located and investigated.

Even traditional companies that do not conduct a lot of work online should have an Email Acceptable Use Policy implemented. Without one, the company is left vulnerable to a range of problems. An employee can knowingly or unknowingly use the company’s email for illegal behavior that can damage the company in several ways. Furthermore, the employer would have no way to keep track of employee email activities and may not have any knowledge of, much less to prove misuse or misconduct.