Email and Internet Policy:

Every Company employee is responsible for using the electronic mail (E-mail) system properly and in accordance with this policy.  Any questions about this policy should be addressed to the Human Resources Department.

The E-mail system is the property of The Sandi Group.  It had been provided by the Company for use in conducting company business.  All communications and information transmitted by, received from, or stored in this system is to be used or company purposes only.  Use of the E-mail system for personal purposes including instant messaging or chatting is prohibited.

Employees have no right of personal privacy in any matter stored in, created, received, or sent over the Company system.

The Sandi Group, in its discretion as owner of the E-mail system, reserves and may exercise the right to monitor, access, retrieve, and delete any matter stored in, created, received, or sent over the E-mail system, for any reason and without permission of any employee.

Even if employees use a password to access the E-mail system, the confidentiality of any message stored in, created, received, or sent from the Company E-mail system still cannot be assured.  Use of passwords or other security measures does not in any way diminish The Sandi Group’s rights to access materials on its system, or create any privacy rights of employees in the messages and files on the system.  Any passwords used by employee must be revealed to the Company as E-mail files may need to be accessed by the company in an employee’s absence.

Employees should be aware that deletion of any E-Mail messages or files will not truly eliminate the messages from the system.  All E-mail messages are stored on a central back-up system in the normal course of data management.

Even though the Company has the right to retrieve and read any E-mail messages, those messages should still be treated as confidential by other employees and accessed only by the intended recipient.  Employees are not authorized to retrieve or read any E-mail messages that are not sent to them.  Any exception to this policy must receive the prior approval of The Sandi Group management.

The Company’s policies against sexual or other harassment apply fully to the E-mail system, and any violation of those policies is grounds for discipline up to and including discharge.  Therefore, no E-mail messages should be created, sent, or received if they contain intimidating, hostile, or offensive material concerning, race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability or any other classification protected by law.

The E-mail system may not be used to solicit for religious or political causes, commercial enterprises, outside organizations, or other non-job related solicitations.

The E-mail system shall not be used to send (upload) or receive (download) copyright materials, trade secrets, proprietary financial information, or similar materials without prior authorization from Company management.  Employees, if uncertain about whether certain information is copyrighted, proprietary, or otherwise inappropriate for transfer, should resolve all doubts in favor of not transferring the information and consult with Senior Management.

“Surfing the Net” is not a legitimate business activity.

Management approval is required before anyone can post information on commercial on-line systems or the Internet.  Any approved material that is posted should obtain all proper copyright and trademark notices.  Absent prior approval from the president to act as an official representative of the Company, employees posting information must include a disclaimer in that information stating, “Views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent those of The Sandi Group”.

Users should routinely delete outdated or otherwise unnecessary E-mails and computer files.  These deletions will help keep the system running smoothly and effectively, as well as minimize maintenance costs.

Employees are reminded to be courteous to other users of the system and always to conduct themselves in a professional manner.  E-mails are sometimes misdirected or forwarded and may be viewed by persons other than the intended recipient.  Users should write E-mail communications with no less care, judgment and responsibility than they would use for letters or internal memoranda written on company letterhead.

Because E-mail records and computer files may be subject to discovery in litigation, company employees are expected to avoid making statements in E-mail or computer files that would not reflect favorably on the employee or The Sandi Group if disclosed in litigation or otherwise.

Violation of Company E-mail policy may result in disciplinary action up to and including discharge.

The Sandi Group reserves the right to modify this policy at any time, with or without notice.

Internet Use:

Employees are provided with access to the Internet to assist them in performing their jobs.  The Internet can be a valuable source of information and research.  In addition, E-Mail can provide excellent means of communicating with other employees, our customers and clients, outside vendors, and other businesses.  Use of the internet, however, must be tempered with common sense and good judgment.

If you abuse your right to use the Internet, it will be taken away from you.  In addition, you may be subject to disciplinary action, including possible termination, and civil and criminal liability.

Disclaimer of liability for use of Internet:

The company is not responsible for material viewed or downloaded by users from the internet.  The Internet is a worldwide network of computers that contains millions of pages of information.  Users are cautioned that many of these pages include offensive, sexually explicit and inappropriate material.  In general, it is difficult to avoid at least some contact with this material while using the Internet.  Even innocuous search requests may lead to sites with highly offensive content.  In addition, having an e-mail address on the Internet may lead to receipt of unsolicited E-Mail containing offensive content.  Users accessing the Internet do so at their own risk.

Duty not to waste computer resources:

Employees must not deliberately perform acts that waste computer resources or unfairly monopolize resources to the exclusion of others.  These acts include, but are not limited to, sending mass mailings or chain letters, spending excessive amount of time on the Internet, playing games, engaging in online chat groups, printing multiple copies of documents, or otherwise creating unnecessary network traffic.  Because audio, video and picture files require significant storage space, files of this or any other sort may not be downloaded unless they are business-related.

No expectation of privacy:

The computers and computer accounts given to employees are to assist them in performance of their jobs.  Employees should not have an expectation of privacy in anything they create, store, send, or receive on the computer system.  The computer system belongs to the Company and may only be used for business purposes.

Monitoring computer usage.  The Company has the right, but not the duty, to monitor any and all of the aspects of its computer system, including, but not limited to, monitoring sites visited by employees on the Internet, monitoring chat groups and news groups, reviewing material downloaded or up loaded by users to the Internet, and reviewing E-Mail sent and received by users.

Blocking of inappropriate content.  The company may use software to identify inappropriate or sexually explicit Internet sites.  Such sites may be blocked from access by Company networks.  In the event you nonetheless encounter inappropriate or sexually explicate material while browsing on the Internet, immediately disconnect from the site, regardless of whether the site was subject to company blocking software.

Games and entertainment software.  Employees may not use the company’s Internet connection to download games or other entertainment software, including wallpaper and screen savers, or to play games over the internet.

Illegal copying.  Employees may not illegally copy materials protected under copyright law or make that material available to others for copying. You are responsible for complying with copyright law and application licenses that may apply to software, files, graphics, documents, messages, and other material you wish to download or copy.

Accessing the Internet.  To ensure security and to avoid the spread of viruses, employees accessing the Internet through a computer attached to the Company’s network must do so through an approved Internet firewall.  Accessing the Internet directly by modem is strictly prohibited unless the computer you are using is not connected to the company’s network.

Virus detection. Files obtained from sources outside the Company, including disks brought from home; files downloaded from the Internet, newsgroups, bulletin boards, or other online service; files attached to e-mail; and files provided by customers or vendors may contain dangerous computer viruses that may damage the Company’s computer network.  Employees should never download files from the Internet, accept e-mail attachments from outsiders, or use disks from non-company sources, without first scanning the materials with Company-approved virus checking software.  If you suspect that a virus has been introduced into the Company’s network, notify the Help Desk immediately.

Sending unsolicited email (spamming).  Without the express permission of their supervisors, employees may not send unsolicited e-mail to persons with whom they do not have a prior relationship.

Amendments and revisions.  This policy may be amended or revised from time to time as the need arises.  Users will be provided with copies of all amendments and revisions.

Violations of this policy will be taken seriously and may result in disciplinary action, including possible termination, and civil and criminal liability.

Employer Information and Property:

The protection of The Sandi Group Business information, property and all other Company assets are vital to the interests and success of the Company.  No Company related information or property, including without limitation, documents, files, records, computer files, equipment, office supplies or similar materials (except in the ordinary course of performing duties on behalf of the Company) may, therefore, be removed from the Company’s premises.  In addition, when an employee leaves The Sandi Group, the employee must return to the Company all Company related information and property that the employee has in his/her possession, including without limitation, documents, files, records, manuals, information stored on a personal computer or on a computer disc, supplies, and will result in appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including discharge.

Voice Mail Policy:

Every employee is responsible for using the Voice Mail system properly and in accordance with this policy.  Any questions about this policy should be addressed to the Human Resources Department.

The Voice Mail system is the property of The Sandi Group.  It has been provided by the Company for use in conducting company business.  All communications and information transmitted by, received from, or stored in this system are company records and property of The Sandi Group.  The Voice Mail system is to be used for company purposes only.  Use of the Voice Mail system for personal purposes is prohibited.

Employees have no right of personal privacy in any matter stored in, created, received, or sent over the Company Voice Mail system.

The Sandi Group, in its discretion as owner of the Voice Mail system, reserves and may exercise the right to monitor, access, retrieve, and delete any matter stored in, created, received, or sent over the Voice Mail system, for any reason without the permission of any employee and without notice.

Even if Employees use a password to access the Voice Mail system, the confidentiality of any message stored in, created, received or sent from the Company Voice Mail system still cannot be assured.  Use of passwords or other security measures does not in any way diminish The Sandi Group’s right to access materials on its system, or create any privacy rights of employees in the messages and files on the system.  Any passwords used by employees must be revealed to the Company as Voice Mail messages may need to be accessed by the Company in an n Employee’s absence.

Employees should be aware that deletion of any Voice Mail messages or files will not truly eliminate the messages form the system.  All Voice Mail messages are stored on a central back-up system in the normal course of data management.

Even though The Sandi Group reserve’s the right to retrieve and listen to any Voice Mail messages, those messages should still be treated as confidential by other employees and accessed only by the intended recipient,  Employees are not authorized to retrieve or listen to any Voice Mail messages that are not sent to them.  Any exception to this policy must receive the prior approval of Company Management. 

Company policies against sexual or other harassment apply fully to the Voice Mail system, and any violation of those policies is grounds for discipline up to and including discharge.  Therefore, no Voice Mail messages should be created, sent, or received if they contain intimidating, hostile, or offensive material concerning race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability or any other classification protected by law.

The Voice Mail system may not be used to solicit for religious or political causes, commercial enterprises, outside organizations, or other non-job related solicitations.

Users should routinely delete outdated or otherwise unnecessary Voice Mail.  These deletions will help keep the system running smoothly and effectively, as well as minimize maintenance costs.

Because of the storage space required for Voice Mail messages, employees should not send a Voice Mail message to a large number of recipients without prior approval from their supervisor.

Employees are reminded to be courteous to other users of the system and always to conduct themselves in a professional manner.  Voice Mails are sometimes misdirected or forwarded and may be heard by persons other than the intended recipient.  Users should create Voice Mail communications with no less care, judgment and responsibility than they would use for letters or internal memoranda written on Company letterhead.

Employees should also use professional and courteous greetings on their Voice Mail boxes so as to properly represent The Sandi Group to outside callers.

Because Voice Mail records and messages may be subject to discovery in litigation, employees are expected to avoid making statements in Voice Mail that would not reflect favorably on the employee or the Company if disclosed in litigation or otherwise.

In order to avoid accidentally disclosing message contents to unauthorized listeners, employees should not listen to Voice Mail messages while using the speaker phone feature.

Violations of Company Voice Mail policy may result in disciplinary action up to and including discharge.

The Sandi Group reserves the right to modify this policy at any time, with or without notice,

Employees are required to sign a Voice Mail Policy Acknowledgement Form as a condition of employment.  The form is to be signed on acceptance of an employment offer by The Sandi Group.

Blackberry or Other PDA Devises: (If Applicable)

Company issued Blackberry users are instructed to apply the same precautions noted elsewhere in this document with the additional notations that blackberries have the same capacities as our office computer.  As such, additional precautions should be exercised when reviewing or sending e-mails remotely to insure integrity of our IT systems. Use of the Blackberry telephone feature is to be limited to appropriate company use.

Do not use the browsing {internet} capacity of the device for accessing restrictive websites; nor should you download programs, files, games, or ring tones not originally loaded to the device.

Promptly report the loss or damage of your device to your manager.

EMPLOYEES NAME (printed):

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EMPLOYEES SIGNATURE:

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DATE: __________________________________________