News Notes: Courts Adopt Internet Policy but Won’t Monitor E-Mail

Employer monitoring of employee Internet access is a hot issue. Federal Ninth Circuit judges recently jumped into the fray by shutting off surveillance software that monitored court employees’ Internet use, stating that such monitoring without prior notice to employees could be illegal. Now the body that governs the federal court system is requiring federal courts to adopt an Internet use policy at least as restrictive as those used by other executive branch agencies. The model policy allows employees limited personal use of the Internet, for example to check investments, but bans uses that would bog down systems, such as downloading music or video files as well as sexually explicit material. However, the courts have stopped short of monitoring employee e-mail.