The UOH provides e-mail to employees to conduct the business of the institution and, in so doing, expects employees to manage and protect records resulting from e-mail communications. The following policy advises UOH employees and departmental management of their responsibilities regarding the creation of e-mail messages; the routine removal of messages from electronic file folders; and, the storage and retention of electronic mail messages which are official UOH records.

While not all e-mail communications are records, all e-mail communications are subject to discovery and can be used as electronic evidence in the event of litigation. Discovery is the legal process that permits parties involved in a legal proceeding to obtain records and information relevant to the proceeding that are in the possession of another party. Unmanaged and unidentified e-mail records residing on UOH computers also pose a threat to the UOH's ability to document and reconstruct business and decision-making processes.

Policy:

It is the policy of the UOH that employees may not retain e-mail messages in their electronic inboxes longer than  necessary. Messages having value must be stored in a file structure or medium that lends itself to records retention audit procedures.

E-mail messages fall into three categories:

  • Records as defined by UOH policy, which document the business of the UOH, such as an approval to initiate a business transaction, and should be saved pursuant to the UOH's Policies.
  • Messages that have limited or transitory value to the UOH, such as a message announcing the date and time of a meeting, need not be saved pursuant to policy.
  • Non-Records, such as lunch arrangements between friends, etc.

All e-mail, including personal use of e-mail, is subject to the UOH's E-mail use policy. The responsibility for compliance with this policy lies with each UOH employee. It is the responsibility of departmental management to develop internal procedures to insure compliance

E-mail: Etiquette and Privacy:

You can expect that e-mail messages you exchange in doing your job are confidential because the UOH does not monitor employee's use of e-mail. You should be aware, however, that e-mail messages are written records that could be subject to review with just cause.

E-mail messages are preserved as computer files on centrally administered disks. And so, it is possible for people other than yourself to see them. In this sense, they are not private. They are unlike face-to-face or telephone conversations in this regard.

UOH policy also allows system administrators to view any files, including e-mail messages, in the course of troubleshooting system problems.

System administrators are required to obtain authorization to do this and to treat any information on the systems as confidential.

UOH policies prohibit certain kinds of e-mail messages. Policies prohibit harassment, political campaigning and soliciting, for instance. Chain mail is an irresponsible use of resources and, therefore, a violation of policy. These policies pertain to e-mail just as they do to any other UOH resource and are enforced when brought to the attention of the administration.

In spite of policy, e-mail messages are vulnerable to hackers when they know the owner's password.

  • Remember, the e-mail messages you send become the possession of the receiver. They can easily be re-distributed by recipients.
  • Delete messages that should not be preserved.
  • Resist the temptation to send chain mail, even when it promises you fame and fortune.
  • Realize that UOH policy and good passwords provide good but not complete assurance of the privacy of your e-mail messages. When the confidentiality of a message is of the utmost importance, only a person-to-person conversation may be sufficiently secure.
  • Don't use UOH resources, computing or otherwise, for political campaigning or soliciting.

Privacy:

While the UOH does not routinely monitor the use of electronic mail, the UOH reserves the right, at any time, to monitor and review employees’ e-mail and to limit and restrict access to the UOH's e-mail system. The UOH owns all e-mail sent and received. The UOH authorizes system administrators to look at any computer files, including e-mail messages, as needed, in trouble-shooting system problems.

Personal E-Mail:

Use of electronic mail for personal communication is expected to be incidental. That is, personal e-mail must not interfere with the work an employee is expected to do and it must not consume resources that are needed for UOH business. Employees must exercise care that no personal e-mail correspondence or messages and comments posted to newsgroups and list-serves appear to be an official communication of the UOH or disclose the UOH of Proprietary Information.

All electronic mail, whether for personal purposes or UOH-related purposes, is subject to review and monitoring by the University as set forth above, and all personal e-mail is subject to all of the same rules and policies as electronic mail sent for UOH-related purposes.

Electronic Community Citizenship:

  • Employees are expected to be courteous and respectful in their e-mail communications in accordance with established codes of ethics and the common rules that have evolved regarding e-mail, sometimes referred to as Netiquette.
  • Employees must not use UOH e-mail resources for personal commerce, for fund-raising.
  • Employees must not send chain letters, pyramid scheme messages or Spam. Chain letters, pyramid scheme messages and Spam are an irresponsible waste of computing resources and an inconsiderate nuisance.
  • Employees must not send sexually explicit, offensive, demeaning, insulting or intimidating e-mail messages, ethnic or racial slurs or anything that harasses or disparages others. Sending such messages is grounds for disciplinary action, including termination.
  • Employees must not violate copyright laws, trademark laws, or other laws in sending e-mail messages, publishing web pages or posting to newsgroups and discussion lists.
  • Employees may use UOH’s institutional mail lists only with appropriate authorization.
  • Messages sent out over the Internet or World Wide Web (i.e., e-mail messages sent to people other than those on a UOH computer system) are not routinely encrypted before leaving the UOH. Although the probability of an Internet e-mail message being intercepted (and possibly disseminated publicly) is small, sensitive communications and documents should not be sent through the Internet without being encrypted.

Email Broadcasting at UOH:

Introduction:

Email has become a necessary part of our life. All UOH community members access regularly their email messages for their academic, research and other official needs. In an attempt to ensure that user email access is focused on prolific official work, ITC has implemented various SPAM (unsolicited emails) control and antivirus defenses.


In addition we strongly recommend all UOH community members to abide by the following ITC policy for Email Broadcasting.


ITC Policy For e-Mail Broadcasting:

  • Only University Official announcements will be broadcast. The Sender must ensure that the message content is correct before sending the broadcast request to ITC Postmaster postmaster@uoh.edu.sa.
  • Messages to be broadcasted should be brief and in TEXT or HTML format. If attachments are essential to be sent then they must be sent to the postmaster in rtf or pdf format only.
  • Announcements of Program Events, Workshops, Symposiums, etc will be posted on the Web and link will be provided with a small message.
  • According to the ITC policies, CONDOLENCE messages for ONLY next of kin (eg: father, mother, brother, sister, wife, son, or daughter) of UOH employees will be broadcasted to the UOH community. Such messages will be broadcasted only once.

ITC Mailbox Maintenance Policy for users:

To provide better E-mail services to all users, we recommend the following procedures to be observed by all users:

  • Users are requested to save their important mails in their personal PC's mail clients on a frequent basis. If your mail box size exceeds (30 Mega byte) in size at any time; you will not be able to send and receive E-mails.
  • In case any user is proceeding for short leave or vacation, still he can access the mail using the UOH Web-based E-mail service.


Dealing with Hoax News:

Recently many users have received e-mail warnings about viruses, which turn out to be hoax. All over the world, the amount of "hoax" emails that a person receives in his mailbox is adding up day by day. These concocted stories waste useful time and resources.


To prevent hoaxes from spreading at UOH, ITC has come up with the following policy:

All E-mail users are advised not to forward any virus warnings of any kind to *anyone* other than ITC Postmaster postmaster@uoh.edu.sa. It doesn't matter if the virus warnings have come from an anti-virus vendor or been confirmed by any large computer company or your best friend. *All* virus warnings should be sent to postmaster@uoh.edu.sa alone. It is Postmaster's job to send all virus related warnings if appropriate, and a virus warning which comes from any other source should be ignored."

We highly appreciate your concern, understanding, cooperation and support.