Banning Third Party E-mail Services

Banning Third Party E-mail Services. According to The Guardian, Merrill Lynch has joined Goldman Sachs in barring employess from using third-party e-mail services like Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL from corporate PCs. The investment banking firm said the ban was justified because of “regulatory requirements” (i.e., the need to insure the firm's communications concerning securities are documented, which is only practical if the company's e-mail system is used exclusively) and as a means to reduce vulnerability to computer viruses. The Guardian notes: “Access to external message boards, chat rooms or forums have all become proscribed activities for Merrill Lynch workers. Using home email accounts at work have also been outlawed.” [net.law.blog]

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