No great shock here. I used to be one of “those guys” years ago who read employee email. And let me tell you, most non-spam email (try 90%) is trivial crap.
From Tech Herald:
So who reads your email at the office? Apparently more people than you think. Forty-four percent of the companies responding to the study said that they investigated an email leak of confidential information in the past year. Forty-one percent reported that they employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the contents of outbound email. In addition, twenty-two percent said they employ staff primarily or exclusively for this purpose.
There are several cases where someone has been terminated over the contents of email. Most are fired under a clause in the company’s Internet Usage Policy. The debate is a huge one, with people expecting privacy when they send email, often personal, from a work account or access personal accounts at the office. Simply put, you have no privacy at the office, and if you get any at all, you should expect very little. Some companies will offer some “personal time†and allow internet usage, but mostly everything you send is logged and monitored, and yes even read by someone else.
Mostly? Try damn near everything for most firms. Email was read only at the behest of legal or HR. Thankfully, those requests seldom arrived.
When people start a new job more often than not they are handed a copy of the acceptable use policy for their respective firm. It is staggering how often people glance over it while pondering dinner plans. Then sign off that they read and accept. It’s like people that click on EULA’s mindlessly.
Later, they potentially pay the price for that lack of attention to detail.