Lots of employees use personal email accounts for work purposes. This can cause serious issues for business owners. The most recent example is that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who used a personal email account for official government work.

Business owners should consider a rule prohibiting employees using personal email for work for the following reasons:

1. A Personal Email Address is Often Unprofessional in Appearance.

Email addresses such as rudegirl15@personalemail.com or imthatdude@personalemail.com likely don’t reflect your business in a positive light and may make customers reconsider doing business with you.

2. You Lack Control of the Email Account.

Most businesses have a company email account that can be controlled. If your employees are using personal email for work, you are unable to control emails that may contain sensitive client information. Further, business owners won’t have the ability to terminate email access if an employee leaves the company. A disgruntled former employee may have access to sensitive client information on their email account long after leaving your business.

3. You Lack a Way to Archive Emails.

Most businesses need to have a way to archive email in case of litigation. If your employees use personal email for work, your business could lose access to all of that information when the employee leaves or may not be able to produce email in response to a discovery request.

4. Viruses.

Personal email accounts may not be subject to the same level of virus protection as your company email. All it takes is one infected email attachment to cause tremendous damage to your computer network or to expose sensitive client information to hackers.

It’s good to know that with the right help, operating a small business in Missouri, Arkansas or Mississippi does not have to be a scary proposition. Our experienced business attorneys can help walk you through the process of setting up your company and ensuring that you have the proper policies in place to run efficiently. For more information, contact us or call 573.686.2459.