Legal liability for internal emails often overlooked

£10,000 pay-out for obscene emails in the workplace

Carson City, NV - September 3, 2003 - Red Earth Software, developer of email policy enforcement software, warns that many companies are not filtering their internal emails, hence making their organization vulnerable to harassment, racist and sexual discrimination lawsuits. Although many organizations filter their external mails for offensive words and add footers to disclaim responsibility for content, messages sent on the internal network are often left untouched. The recent settlement in the UK for obscene emails sent over the internal network only serves to highlight the fact that leaving internal emails unchecked can prove to be a costly business.

UK financial advisers Holden Meehan were recently forced to pay £10,000 in settlement of a dispute with an employee regarding unfair dismissal and sexual harassment 1. The 37-year-old personal assistant inadvertently discovered a number of emails with sexual and violent comments about her. When her formal complaint was not taken seriously, she prepared to take the case to an employment tribunal. In an earlier case in the US, Chevron had to settle for $2.2 million when four female employees alleged that sexually harassing emails sent through the company email system caused a threatening work environment2. One of the sexually offensive messages was a 'joke' sheet entitled '25 reasons why beer is better than women'.

'An employer is obliged to provide a safe work environment that is free of sexual discrimination, harassment and racism', said Mike Spykerman, CEO of Red Earth Software. 'If employees circulate rude jokes via email or make inappropriate comments regarding co-workers, the employer could be held responsible. Apart from legal liability, it is also important to filter internal mails to protect against confidentiality breaches, lost productivity, network congestion and to ensure compliancy with industry regulations'.

Internal email filtering software
A possible reason why most companies only content check their external mails is because there are simply not many email filters that are capable of checking internal mails. This is because the technology for filtering internally sent emails is far more advanced than for externally sent emails. At the moment, Policy Patrol is the only one-stop solution that can filter internal as well as external mails (if installed on Exchange Server 2000 or 2003), whilst offering a full feature set including spam black lists and disclaimer features, and the option to apply different rules depending on whether the mail is internal or external.

Policy Patrol
Policy Patrol is a comprehensive email-filtering tool that offers advanced anti-spam, anti-virus, content & attachment checking, disclaimers, archiving and reporting. Policy Patrol works with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003/2000/5.5, Lotus Domino and any other SMTP mail server. If installed on Exchange Server 2003 or 2000, Policy Patrol can filter internal as well as external emails. The product is available in two versions: Policy Patrol Disclaimers (disclaimer features) and Policy Patrol Enterprise (all features). Pricing for Policy Patrol Disclaimers starts at $119 for 10 users and Policy Patrol Enterprise (including Kaspersky™ Anti-Virus) starts at $395 for 10 users. A free 30-day evaluation version is available for download from http://www.policypatrol.com.

Red Earth Software specializes in the development of policy enforcement software for messaging systems. The company is dedicated to the creation of technically innovative products that give Red Earth Software clients a full spectrum of possibilities for leveraging email and Internet services. Policy Patrol customers include Nissan, Targus, Canadian Pacific Railway, USA.net, Lotto, Fujitsu Services (Central Government customer) and Daewoo.

1. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_811973.html?menu=news.technology
2. http://www.locklaw.com/joblaw/jlwired.html

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For more information about this press release or to request copies for review, please send an email to Deborah Galea at press@redearthsoftware.com. Alternatively visit the Red Earth Software website at http://www.redearthsoftware.com.

Policy Patrol® is a registered trademark of Red Earth Software®. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.