Businesses ban personal e-mail use

UK plc is cracking down on personal e-mail use, a survey has found.

Research by consultancy FAST Corporate Services shows that nearly two-thirds of UK organisations are restricting the use of private e-mail accounts, such as Yahoo! and Hotmail.

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Almost half of those surveyed said they had banned staff access to personal e-mail accounts completely, while 12% said they allowed staff to use them only at certain times of the day (lunch hours and after work), and 5% restricted access to a limited number of PCs.

FAST membership manager, Chris Minchin, said: “The research indicates that companies are waking up to the problems of private e-mail, and for many, the easiest and most obvious solution is simply to ban access to certain sites.”