UK e-snooping rules conflict
Country Watch: Britain
10/23/2000; 5:32:15 PM

'The UK government bodies regulating employers' snooping on staff e-mails and phone calls have given conflicting explanations of how two overlapping sets of new rules will interact.

'The Department of Trade and Industry's surveillance rules, which come into force next week, give employers a largely free hand to snoop. The main proviso is that staff are warned their personal e-mails and calls may be monitored.

'But a draft code on surveillance, issued by the Data Protection Commission within days of the DTI's announcement of the new rules, is markedly more restrictive. It warns that blanket monitoring of e-mails is unlikely to be justified and that employers should not open personal messages received at work.'