Michael,
I think that you need a separate laptop, PDA, PocketMail, etc. if you want to
separate your personal and work-related emails.  From my perspective, I view
emails in the same light as personal phone calls on company time.  In short, I
don't care what you do on your time.  However, when you are on the clock, your
time is mine.  My personal philosophy is that I am results-oriented and when
my employees are getting the quantity and quality of work that I expect, I'm
happy for them to use the phones and computers as their own.  However, there
are always a few who spend so much personal time on the computer or phone that
they can barely squeeze in time for work.  Maybe I'm a capitalistic PIA but
that's my view, from the cheap seats!
Regards,
Randy Pickelmann
hard aground in Clearwater
MORNING STAR
www.morningstar.talkspot.com

Hopefully I can bring some light to some of these issues as this falls under my area of responsibility  at work.  Per Sarbanes Oxley or as we call it SarBox we have to hold any form of communications(email, AIM, etc) in a easily search able and retrievable method.  And yes we do keep EVERY single email and are currently working on our policies of what to keep versus what not to keep.  For those interested in the types of tools employers are using and want to dive into this non boating topic further look at EMC's Email Extender and Examiner products to see what it is that they do.  Yes there are other products but it's the one that I work with and I know would answer many of these questions.  Here's the link.. http://www.emc.com/solutions/compliance/email.jsp

And oh by the way let's put a few other mini subjects to bed here.. Yes I can track which websites employees have been to but the overhead on the firewall is to great for a whole company typically.  So we usually only monitor specific employees and total viewing habits if told to do so by HR.  Typical in a company is to purchase a filtering product like websense which keeps people from getting to the sites that companies don't like.  And oh by the way typically any browsers leaves a nice trail in history and cache as to where you have been as well.

As far as checking what employees are sending, yes the capability is fully there(see above) but again we don't look at the emails unless prompted by HR then we give them access to that users emails.  They then can search based off of keywords.

I hope that answers any questions.. I can answer more if you want just email me directly, I'm certified in this stuff so I can answer it off the top of my head or look it up in one of the books I have in front of me.

Now onto a boating subject!!  Let's call it "Computer Security While Cruising"
I try and be VERY careful while being remote with my laptop.  Currently our company supports many remote users and we are forever trying to be more secure with laptops and the sensitive information that is on them.  Many of you all are live aboards and it would be interesting to here some of the safeguards you all are using to protect your PC's and the information that is on them??

John Ford
KK44 Feisty Lady
Annapolis City Marina