The US Judicial Conference, the policy making body for the US
federal courts, has approved a new ruling that all 30,000 US
federal court employees, including judges, are to have their
internet use monitored. However, the “model use” policy included a
concession to privacy advocates that e-mail use will not be
monitored.
Earlier proposals had called for unlimited access to both
internet access and electronic communications, a move which met
with stiff opposition form the Federal Court employees and judges
who claimed that it violated the US Constitution.
Instead, monitoring will be left to the discretion of individual
courts. Also forbidden is the downloading of music, porn or “any
personal use that could cause congestion, delay or disruption of
service to any government system or equipment.”
The ruling by the Judicial Conference also detailed the levels
of public access to court documents on-line. Courts are to begin
making civil and bankruptcy court files available on the internet.
However, criminal case decisions will remain off-line for the time
being and any sensitive personal information such as bank account
details and social security numbers will be omitted.
OUT-LAW.COM offers a free ***Communications Policy*** which can
be downloaded, amended and used by UK businesses to help regulate
employee use of e-mail and the internet.
