07-25-2008, 04:01 PM
Is there somebody employed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who may be subjecting the university to potential liability because of his cyberstalking activities?
HOW TO PREVENT CORPORATE CYBERSTALKING
HOW TO PREVENT CORPORATE CYBERSTALKING
Quote:Are your employees stalking other company's employees? Corporate cyberstalking creates an important legal risk that needs to be addressed. There are ways to prevent such behavior and to secure an organization from lawsuits.
While cyberstalking is in many ways a personal, rather than a business problem, it can deeply affect any organization. The number of cases where company employees are stalking other company employees is on the rise, with an estimate of 25 percent of all stalking cases involving stalking in the workplace. This form of stalking is called corporate cyberstalking. This might take the form of a company - usually represented by a single employee or manager - harassing an individual, who may or may not be another company's employee. As indicated in the summary entitled: "Can companies be held liable for cyberstalking," because access to the Internet provided by the employer makes it extremely easy for the employees to conduct illegal activity online, all employers are exposed to potential liability. This problem cannot just be ignored. In order to reduce this legal risk, a strict company policy should be implemented, with a view to deterring the employees from abusing company property.
How can a company minimize its liability risk for cyberstalking?
In order to minimize the risk of employer liability for illegal online activities of its employees, employers must do the following:?
- Establish a strict company policy prohibiting employee's access to its technology and any communication by this technology for the purpose of conducting an illegal online act.
- Put employees on notice that the company is monitoring their online activity. This can also be done via the company policy.
- Create corporate email policies, which outline the proper behavior when sending electronic mail internally and to Internet users. Such policies should provide clear guidelines of what constitutes improper action (e.g. sending threats, consistently sending messages to someone who doesn't want to correspond, or sending pornography or other material that may be considered offensive.) The company should stress that such actions will not be tolerated, and what the company may do in retaliation (such as termination of the person's employment.)
What are the ways of preventing cyberstalking?
Companies might want to consider the following ways of preventing cyberstalking:
- Setting up a violence prevention plan that articulates the rules against harassment, threats of violence, intimidation and violent or disruptive behavior.
- Setting up a web page on the company's website, containing information about cyberstalking and what to do if confronted with this problem. An address to which complaints of abusive or harassing electronic emails can be sent should be included so that the company's Internet users can easily report cyberstalking cases.
- Informing the company's employees about the ways to protect themselves online. These include all the e-mail tools that allow the users to block or filter e-mail from individuals who are attempting to harass or annoy them.
- Setting up a dispute resolution scheme that achieve better mutual understanding and elicit beneficial emotional expression and engagement.
On the individual level, what standard of conduct should be adopted in order to prevent cyberstalking?
Corporate employees and all Internet users should consider the following safety tips to reduce their risk of becoming cyberstalking victims:
- Exercise extreme caution about meeting online acquaintances in person;
- Practice safe surfing, and log off or surf elsewhere if a situation online becomes hostile;
- Check if the company's or ISP's acceptable use policy expressly prohibits cyberstalking;
- Contact the company's abuse a local law enforcement agency if a situation appears dangerous;
- Don't share personal information in public spaces anywhere online;
- Don't use real names or nicknames as screen names or user IDs.
- Pick names that are gender and age-neutral;
- Don't post personal information as part of a user profile.
Besides, users should keep a full record of all harassing e-mails. This evidence will then be used to sanction/prosecute the cyberstalker. This is also important because in some States, authorities must first see if consent was given or whether the victim requested that the contact stopped.
