Ford in anti-porn drive

Ford does not tolerate offensive material on workers' computers

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Workers at car giant Ford have been ordered to remove pornographic material from their work computers.

In an internal e-mail to UK staff, the company set a two-week deadline for the removal of pornographic pictures, links to Internet sites and other material Ford considered offensive as defined by its human resources department.

Spot checks carried out on a regular basis would then ensure that workers were not misusing their computers, a Ford spokesman told CNN on Wednesday. Offenders would face serious disciplinary action, the company warned.

"The purpose of the memo is to remind the employees what material the company considers improper. We do this on a fairly regular basis, but in this case workers are given a two week amnesty to remove it from their computers," Phil Hale said.

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The e-mail -- which was for company use only -- outlined what material was considered offensive, including written or photographic pornography, racist, sexist, or blasphemous material, as well as how to destroy it and remove links, Hale said.

"Ford will ensure that workers are following the instructions by random checks of in and outgoing e-mails.

"The company hasn't dismissed anyone because of misuse of work computers," Hale said.

But he confirmed that three workers were disciplined last year over allegations that they were using work computers to distribute material of improper content other than pornography.

Stuart Morrice, of e-mail auditing firm Peapod, told CNN that companies have to be careful when checking e-mails and personal content on employees' work computers because a lot of complex legal and human rights issues were involved.

"The companies have to ensure that they are acting in accordance with privacy and data protection laws when monitoring Internet and e-mail use otherwise they could find themselves in court," he warned.

A company is required to notify employees by e-mail when and for what they are checking computer use in the work place.

"If, for instance, an employee is sacked but the business failed to inform that his or her e-mail was being checked, it can find it self in legal trouble," Morrice said.

Peapod audits have found that much offensive material is floating around in work places, but employees were using "all the tricks of the trade" to hide it, he said.

"Porn and other offensive material is hidden in spreadsheets or PDF files -- places where monitoring systems can't detect it."