§ 74-1017. Electronic mail information

Dallas County electronic mail (email) system is designed to facilitate the performance of county business by enhancing business communications and reducing paperwork. A user of the Dallas County email system or any other county electronic information system must adhere to the following:

(1) Dallas County email system is intended for business use only. Users should keep personal email usage to a minimum and in a manner that does not interfere with user's job performance.

(2) All information created, retained, archived, sent or received via the Dallas County email system, including email messages and attachments, is the property of Dallas County or the elected official. Users shall have no expectation of privacy regarding email. Dallas County and elected officials reserves the right to use, disclose, access, read, review, monitor and copy all messages and files on Dallas County computer resources at any time without notice to user and without the user's consent.

(3) Users may use email to communicate classified information internally, and all email must be marked with the appropriate data classification. Classified data should only be minimally distributed, on a need-to-know basis. Extreme care shall be used to ensure the correct email address is used for the intended recipient(s).

(4) Users shall attach user's name to all messages sent electronically. No email shall be sent when the sender's identity is not displayed.

(5) Confidential information shall not be sent to external email addresses unless encrypted.

(6) A department head, an elected official, or a supervisor authorized by his/her department head or elected official may have access to a user's email to further county business goals without notice to user and without user's consent. User may not allow anyone — other than user's department head, elected official, authorized supervisor, or person authorized by a court order — to have access to user's electronic information without permission from user's department head or elected officer. All other access must have prior approval from the commissioners court via written communication with the commissioners court administrator.

(7) Users shall exercise sound and reasonable judgment when distributing messages. Messages containing confidential data should be carefully guarded and protected. users must also abide by copyright laws, county code, ethics rules and other applicable laws or policies.

(8) Email messages shall contain professional and appropriate language at all times. Users are prohibited from sending abusive, harassing, intimidating, threatening and discriminatory or otherwise offensive messages via email. A user should notify user's supervisor immediately upon receiving an offensive email; this type of message should not be forwarded.

(9) All messages archived in Dallas County computer systems shall be deemed County property or the property of appropriate elected official, as is all information on Dallas County computer systems. Employees shall have the responsibility for verifying and understanding Dallas County email policies, departmental policies and county retention policies.

(10) Users shall not misuse and/or abuse email by copying or downloading copyrighted material, viewing, sending or downloading pornographic material or any material deemed inappropriate by county policy.

(11) Upon temporarily leaving, resignation, retiring, termination or separation for any reason of user's employment or association with county, user shall not access, copy, transfer, or download information from or via county computer system. Additionally, the confidentiality status of any information shall survive user's resignation, retirement, termination or separation.

(Ord. No. 2009-0822, 5-5-2009)