Playing big brother could make a company unpopular with its employees, but that may be a necessary price to pay, a recent study suggests. North American securities firms that review employee electronic correspondence are able to significantly reduce their organization's exposure to corporate risk, a survey by Toronto-based e-mail archiving software firm Fortiva Inc. indicates.
Sixty-three per cent of the companies polled said e-mail surveillance has improved their awareness of potential perils stemming from employee communication.
"Companies are starting to recognize the benefits supervising electronic communications can have within an organization," said Paul Chen, CEO, Fortiva. Increasingly sophisticated archiving tools are making it easier for organizations to protect themselves from e-mail risks, he said.
These risks run the gamut – from industrial espionage and insider trading to sharing of pornographic material and even harassment, according to Rick Dales, vice-president, technical product management, Fortiva.
"Some employees might be making false representation to clients or promising investment returns that can't be guaranteed," said Dales.
The survey, which involved 100 U.S. and Canadian companies in the securities industry, found that at least 93 per cent of the firms have formal policies requiring e-mail surveillance.
All participants review employee e-mail, but only five per cent examine the contents of attachments and 52 per cent review instant messages. Fortiva further discovered that companies are spending an average of 12 hour per week for every 100 employees to review their electronic messages.
The practice of monitoring employee e-mail has gained traction in various industries over the past two years, according to a Toronto-based lawyer who specializes in information technology and intellectual property.
"Companies are not only promoting policies covering e-mail correspondence but are also engaging in electronic correspondence surveillance," said Ron Walker, of Fasken Martineau DuMaulin LLP. Walker sited the two-year-old court battle between the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) World Markets Corp. and startup Genuity Capital Market Inc. – both based in Toronto.
CIBC has alleged that its former executives who set up Genuity were pirating CIBC employees. Evidence presented by CIBC in the ongoing cased included employee e-mail.
Walker said e-mail can also be used as evidence of inappropriate behaviour. For instance, he noted that in the U.S. Rep. Mark Foley of Florida resigned amid reports that he sent sexually explicit Internet messages to an underage male.
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