Employees Do Not Understand Perils of Computer Use at Work

As we mark e-mail's 25th birthday by exchanging more than 143 billion messages a day, it is not all cause for celebration. A new survey reveals significant misunderstanding among American workers regarding the privacy of their personal e-mail and other computer activities in the workplace. A large percentage do not know that even their most personal messages may be stored electronically and can come back to haunt them or their employer.

The results of a survey entitled Nothing Personal: 2006 Survey of Computer Use at Work, fielded by Kelton Research, asked 1,000 U.S. workers whether they thought their personal computer activities at work remained personal or became business records of their employer. The survey covered personal e-mails, instant messages (IMs), web searches and word-processing files created on computers in the workplace.

Among the survey highlights:

• Overall, more than half of all workers did not know that personal e-mail, IMs and unsent files created on work computers may become business records.
• Over 40 percent of those surveyed did not realize that personal web searches on their work computers could become business records.
• Two-thirds of all workers did not understand that personal IMs to friends could become business records.
• Younger workers (18-34) tended to be less aware than older ones. More than half of the younger group (55 percent) did not understand that sending an e-mail to a friend created a business record, compared with 39 percent of those over 55.

Concerns about electronically stored information (ESI) are especially high in view of amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) that are scheduled to take effect December 1, 2006. The amendments establish new procedures for an orderly exchange of ESI early in the litigation process, thus making it all the more likely that inappropriate e-mails, web searches, IMs and other ESI will come to light in pre-trial discovery.