As e-mail archiving surges into the mid-market, enterprises should reassess their e-mail acceptable use policies and agreements with end users. Specifically, enterprises need to clearly explain retention and privacy policies, as well as update the enterprise's position on personal use of enterprise e-mail. Let the consideration or implementation of an archiving solution trigger a review of these policies.

The New Component

E-mail acceptable use policies traditionally explicate acceptable behavior for both corporate and personal use. These policies usually disallow certain end-user behaviors, such as offensive language, and may restrict personal use. Often, the policy sets privacy expectations and defines storage limits. In this way, the acceptable use policy serves as an agreement between the enterprise and end users as to the acceptable behavior of all parties with regard to e-mail sent and received on enterprise e-mail systems.