E-Mail and Internet Policy
The ability of employees to use external e-mail and to access the Internet provides new opportunities for the College. It facilitates the gathering of information and communication with fellow employees, customers and other contacts. However, Internet and e-mail access opens up the College to new risks and liabilities. It is therefore essential that employees read these guidelines and make themselves aware of the potential liabilities involved in using e-mail and the Internet.
1.1 Use of e-mail and the Internet are primarily for work-related purposes.
1.2 Computers and e-mail accounts are the property of the College and are designed to assist in the performance of your work. You should, therefore, have no expectation of privacy in any e-mail sent or received, whether it is of a business or personal nature.
1.3 It is inappropriate use of e-mail and the Internet for employees to access, download or transmit any material which might reasonably be considered to be obscene, abusive, sexist, racist or defamatory. You should be aware that such material may also be contained in jokes sent by e-mail. Such misuse of electronic systems may be construed as misconduct and will, in certain circumstances, be treated by the College as misconduct. The College reserves the right to use the content of any employee e-mail in any disciplinary process.
1.4 Staff are responsible and accountable for all activities carried out under their login name. The password associated with a particular personal login name must not normally be divulged to another person. Exceptions include members of the IT staff when support is required.
1.5
Attempts to access or use any employees name that is not
authorised to staff are prohibited.
1.6 No person shall jeopardise the integrity, performance or reliability of College computer equipment, software and other stored information. In this context, "software" is taken to comprise programs, routines, procedures and their associated documentation, which can be implemented on a computer system, including personal computers and workstations.
1.7 The integrity of Highlands College's computer systems is jeopardised if employees do not take adequate precautions against malicious software (e.g. computer virus programs).
2.1 E-mails should be drafted with care. Due to the informal nature of e-mail, it is easy to forget that it is a permanent form of written communication and that material can be recovered even when it is deleted from your computer.
2.2 External e-mails are a communication with the outside and are part of the public face of the College. They need to express a positive image of the college.
2.3 Employees should not make derogatory remarks in e-mails about employees, students, competitors or any other person. Any written derogatory remark may constitute libel.
2.4 Try not to create e-mail congestion by sending trivial messages or unnecessarily copying e-mails. Employees should regularly delete unnecessary e-mails to prevent over-burdening the system. This includes clearing out sent items, as well as archiving any personal folders.
2.6 You may want to obtain e-mail confirmation of receipt of important messages. You should be aware that this is not always possible and may depend on the external system receiving your message. If in doubt, telephone to confirm receipt of important messages.
2.9 All incoming and outgoing e-mail attachments are retained and scanned before being distributed to the recipient. Any attachments deemed unsuitable are logged and removed from the mail before sending on to the recipient.
“This email, its content and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may be legally privileged and/or confidential. Access by any other party is unauthorised without the express written permission of the sender. If you have received this email in error you may not copy or use the contents, attachments or information in any way. Please destroy it and contact the sender on the number printed above, via the Highlands College switchboard on +44 (0)1534 608608 or via e-mail return.
Internet communications are not secure unless protected using strong cryptography. This email has been prepared using information believed by the author to be reliable and accurate, but Highlands College makes no warranty as to accuracy or completeness. In particular Highlands College does not accept responsibility for changes made to this email after it was sent. Any opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the College or its affiliates. They may be subject to change without notice.”
3.1 Reasonable private use of the Internet is permitted but should be kept to a minimum and should not interfere with your work. Excessive private access to the Internet during working hours may lead to disciplinary action and may in certain circumstances be treated by the College as misconduct.
3.2 The sites accessed by you must comply with the restrictions set out in these guidelines. Accessing inappropriate sites may lead to disciplinary action and may in certain circumstances be treated by the College as misconduct.
4.1 Copyright applies to all text, pictures, video and sound, including those sent by e-mail or on the Internet. Files containing such copyright protected material may be downloaded, but not forwarded or transmitted to third parties without the permission of the author of the material or an acknowledgement of the original source of the material, as appropriate.
4.2 Copyrighted software must never be downloaded. Such copyrighted software may include screen-savers.
4.3 Downloading or installation of software that may alter the set-up or configuration of college machines is forbidden. This also includes attachments that may have been received via email.
4.4 The downloading of bit-mapped images and multimedia files is limited.
4.5 College employees should not import non-text files or unknown messages on to the College’s system without having them scanned for viruses. If you have not been properly trained to scan for viruses, do not import such items at all.
4.6 College employees must never engage in political discussions through outside newsgroups using the College’s computer system.
5.1 You are responsible for safeguarding your password for the system. For reasons of security, your individual password should not be printed, stored on-line or given to others. User password rights given to employees should not give rise to an expectation of privacy.