Exchange 2000

twistedfaith · 7 Sep 2007 at 10:02

I'm looking for some advice please! I made a post a few days ago about having all incoming AND outgoing e-mails being forwarded to my boss and how to do it. She has now decided that she wants only the incoming mails to be forwarded to her. Is there a simple way to do this? The only way I can think of is to create a group and have her in a forwarding address, is there any other way? I did get a suggestion before about giving her access to all users mail folders - this won't work due to the fact she can bearly open her own e-mails and it would just confuse her (she's in her 70's). Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

stoofa · 7 Sep 2007 at 10:28

Well under "Delivery Options" for each user in the Active Directory you have the option of setting a forward.
One of the sub-options is deliver to just the forward address or both the forward address and recepient.

So you could go through each user account and set this so that every user automatically receives their own mail however a copy is also sent to another account of your choosing.

twistedfaith · 7 Sep 2007 at 10:35

I did think about that, but some users already are forwarding to other users for various reasons. This is a pain...we have explained to our boss that this wouldn't be a good idea or very easy to implement. Like I said before - I wanted to create a distribution group...trouble is that if I put every user in the distribution group then every user will recieve 2 of the same e-mail each time someone sends something in. Driving me mad.

m4cc45 · 7 Sep 2007 at 21:05

This would fix it but it's not a great way of doing it.

On the client create a rule that any sent e-mail (i.e. e-mail from [email protected]) be sent to the trash can or any other appropraite folder.

It's not great and not exactly what you want but it would work wihtout adding to the mass administration you currently have.

M.

P.S. I hope your boss has either had them all sign a declaration that she could monitor there inboxes otherwise she's breaking numerous confidentiality laws.

Caged · 7 Sep 2007 at 21:28

Just set your boss up as the manager of every account and let her add the mailboxes of the users she wants to keep an eye on to her Outlook.

IAmATeaf · 7 Sep 2007 at 21:50

If she can barely read and look after her own emails why the hell would she want to nose around her employees emails?

stoofa · 8 Sep 2007 at 03:59

m4cc45 said:
P.S. I hope your boss has either had them all sign a declaration that she could monitor there inboxes otherwise she's breaking numerous confidentiality laws.

No she isn't.
As long as somewhere in the staff handbook/manual/contract it states that e-mail maybe monitored she can read whatever e-mail she likes.
Work e-mail is just that - work and so can be read and monitored.

The bottom line is that there is no such thing as private e-mail in the work place.

m4cc45 · 8 Sep 2007 at 08:42

stoofa said:
No she isn't.
As long as somewhere in the staff handbook/manual/contract it states that e-mail maybe monitored she can read whatever e-mail she likes.
Work e-mail is just that - work and so can be read and monitored.

The bottom line is that there is no such thing as private e-mail in the work place.

I'm afraid the law disagrees with you. There has been numerous cases where people have 'monitored' e-mail and tried to take action against individuals on the basis of there snooping - nothing has ever happened because e-mail is now like the post - if it's addressed to the individual it is a personnel resource.

I believe every individual has to sign a decleration that other people can access there e-mail or if the person has left the company that is also generally accepted.

M.

Email monitoring may contravene European law

Posted by Dicontas Blog Admin on April 11, 2007.
Monitoring employees’ internet & telephone use at work may contravene EU human rights laws, after a landmark case in the European Court of Human Rights last week.
The case involved a public-sector employee, who won €3,000 in damages and €6,000 in court costs and expenses, after her communications were intercepted by her employer, Carmarthenshire College. Lynette Copland successfully took the UK government to court after her personal internet usage and telephone calls were monitored by one of her bosses in 1999.
This ruling means that the private use of company telecoms equipment and internet access may be protected under European human rights legislation, if the company has an acceptable personal-use policy and fails to inform the employee that their communications may be monitored. Employee communications are also covered by human rights legislation if the organisation has no explicit acceptable use policy and fails to inform the employee of the monitoring of personal email.
Privacy law firm, Pinsent Masons, said that although businesses now have clear guidance for monitoring work communications under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000, personal communications at work may be protected by the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Human Rights Act 1998. “The lawful business practice regulations allow an employer to monitor and intercept business communications, so the court is implying that private use of a telecommunications system, assuming it is authorised via an acceptable-use policy, can be protected [by human rights legislation],” said Dr Chris Pounder, a privacy specialist. “The ruling is important in that it reinforces the need for a statutory basis for any interference with respect to private use of a telecommunications system by an employee,” Pounder added.
Source: ZDNet, 11 April 2007

Mikey · 8 Sep 2007 at 09:28

Why is she wanting to do this anyway and yes certainly from the legal aspect she's on thin ice

twistedfaith · 9 Sep 2007 at 23:38

she's wanting to do it because she doesn't trust anyone, I think thats the reason behind it. The story is that her 2 sons are running the company - one of them is useless and is losing the company a lot of money so he has been "asked" to go assist with his father's business for 18 months or so and she is taking his role. To give you an idea of what she is like - there is a buzzer that goes off every couple of hours to mark the start/end of breaks etc. Anyways, back to the e-mails - we have explained and re-explained the uselessness of forwarding all e-mails to her. There are 60-70 people within the business who are recieving e-mails 24/7...it would destroy her laptop and she wouldn't have time to read it all anyways. We have asked our e-mail provider if they can do anything but they refuse due to the technical ramifications of doing it (apparantly). Trouble is neither my boss or her partner (who is my direct supervisor) knows anything about computers or the technical stuff...so it all falls on deaf ears, I'm having hell of a time finding a way to get all the e-mails to her...I'm hoping that it DOES destroy her .pst and laptop so she will see first hand how stupid an idea this is...and so the thinking goes on...

Mikey · 10 Sep 2007 at 00:01

Sounds like the company has bigger issues than e-mail forwarding. She needs to focus on running the company otherwise even her e-mails will become irrelevant. If I was other members of staff I'd send 0 personal mails from work and basically been looking for a new job.

She risks loosing the staff she currently has!!

Research into 3rd party software? It'll cost £££ but if that's what is important to her then fair enough. pst size won't come into it as it's all stored in the exchange DB, just make sure there is enough disk space and no quotas on the stores.

All in all a complete waste of time and I'd be taking my skills elsewhere

Carling · 10 Sep 2007 at 00:07

If she does this she falls through the ice, its breaking the law.

And I agree with the above, go work somewhere else, if you do what she asks it might be you getting in to trouble as well.

Mikey · 10 Sep 2007 at 00:08

As a number of us of said I'd re-point it out to her. I wouldn't action it if it's against the law.

twistedfaith · 10 Sep 2007 at 08:53

yeah, I will be letting her know its against the law later on today. As for those saying I need to look for a new job - this IS a new job (only been here for 1 and a half months)...took me a long time to get this job as no-one is willing to employ me because of certain health problems I have

. I totally agree that this is a waste of time - with the amount of e-mails that she will recieve there will be no point getting them - she will be spending all her time trying to read them. Anyways, I'm not going to action this I don't think, just let them know where they stand leagally and the only way that they can get this to work is to spend money (which they hate doing).

stoofa · 10 Sep 2007 at 12:45

Read the whole thing again.
Most companies WILL have an acceptable use policy in place which means they can legally monitor what their employees are getting up to online.
If there is no such policy in place then it's a job for the solicitors to gain something and get rich (because they are the only ones who ever make anything from the cases).

Read through your company handbook and/or contract.
If there is ANY mention of acceptable use then they can legally monitor your accounts.
You also need to be careful of wording - this woman is NOT asking that communications be intercepted, she is asking for them to be monitored.
Intercepted would be that mail is stopped, checked and then passed on to the employee - that is not what you've been asked to do.

Do not tell her what she wants to do is illegal because it isn't - research the whole subject before you go to a boss with a line like that.

sidethink · 10 Sep 2007 at 13:57

I've used this:

http://www.gfi.com/mailarchiver/

at a number of small sites before and it will do what you require. Depending on how much mail we're talking about, you might need a dedicated SQL box to hold the data but thats what you get when you ask for a copy of all mails sent/received.

Its pretty simple to setup and works quite well.

Spec that up with a copy of SQL (and a Windows server license) and a piece of hardware then tell her that is what she will need. That might put her off and you fulfil your end of the bargain - by providing advice.