The Australian Computer Society (ACS) has called on the Federal Government to develop guidelines for its proposed anti-terrorism email snooping laws.
The new laws would allow organisations to intercept and view employees’ emails without their consent. Their announcement attracted heavy criticism from commentators.
President of ACS, Kumar Parakala, said the new laws deserve consideration to reflect the changing state of digital communications.
“The Federal Government’s decision to review Privacy Laws to protect national security raises the issue of professional conduct around new technologies and the absence of a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that privacy is protected,” Parakala said.
“The ACS is calling on the Federal Government to take into consideration an alert & logbook system as well as random auditing and a code of conduct.”
Accompanying the call, the ACS released a set of recommendations for the laws, including the development of:
- An authorisation process and policy – to identify who can authorise the accessing of employee emails;
- A log book system – to record who, why and when an email is access by someone other than its sender or recipient;
- An alert system – to notify employees if their emails are accessed by an employer;
- A Code of Conduct – which would forbid employers using information obtained from an employee’s email;
- Random auditing – to ensure organisations do not breach privacy laws; and
- An email and web use policy – so employees understand the new laws.
“We are living in a new era where uninterrupted access to the web and private and corporate email is part of life – particularly with younger generations,” Parkala said.
“Privacy laws must reflect this and corporate Australia should develop and implement contemporary email policies, which are in line with a work life balance.”
The ACS also noted that both employers and employees should know that:
- their organisation could be legally responsible for communications sent from the company, including personal emails sent from a company email address
- anything included in an email could be made public in the event of litigation
The society also said employers should not violate their employees’ web and email privacy, unless there is good reason to suspect guidelines are not being followed.