A UK Code of Practice for businesses on monitoring employee
e-mail and internet use, due to be released this month, will not be
published until December, according to today's edition of Computing
magazine.
The delay is apparently intended to allow the new Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, to review the document. He begins his role on 2nd December.
The Code of Practice, which will also include guidelines for storage of employees' medical information, aims to clarify when monitoring of employees' communications such as telephone, e-mail and internet is allowed.
With the guidelines, the Information Commission aims to achieve a balance between employees' rights as provided by the Data Protection Act 1998 and employers' responsibilities under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000.
The current draft of the guidelines on monitoring employees' communications can be downloaded as a PDF.
