The government’s Lawful Business Practice Regulations come into force on 24th October. They provide that businesses can monitor (but not record) communications for the purposes of checking whether or not communications are relevant to the business and monitor calls to confidential, counselling helplines run free of charge.
The Regulations require businesses to "make all reasonable efforts" to inform those people who use the organisation's telecoms systems that interceptions may take place.
The Data Protection Commission’s guidelines on surveillance are more restrictive. Among other recommendations, they state: “Do not open e-mails that are clearly personal”. They also state:
"Unless there is some evidence that the use of e-mail poses a particular risk to trade secrets, the organisation is particularly vulnerable and e-mail monitoring is part of a package of carefully considered measures to tackle the problem, it is difficult to see how routine monitoring can be justified. Where monitoring is justified limit it to the e-mails of those employees who actually have access to the trade secrets."
David Trower, strategic policy manager at the DPC admitted to FT.com, “perhaps the communication between us and the DTI could have been better."
He suggests that the two sets of guidance should be viewed as two separate hurdles to clear, as opposed to being contradictory. The DTI has said that it sees the two sets of guidance as sitting “seamlessly side by side.”