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Information Systems Policies

From identity fraud to infidelity, Internet abuse can be devastating to ministries, individuals, and families. Consider the following policies to protect your staff and ministry.

Now that we have computers for all of our staff, and those computers are connected to each other and to the Internet, there is potential for abuse. While this may not sound serious, it can be. From identity fraud to infidelity, Internet abuse can be devastating to ministries, individuals, and families. Ministries need to change the way they look at technology and how they manage it. They need information systems policies.

Following are a few policies we recommend for your ministry:

Non-Privacy of System Contents

An increasing number of ministries are finding they need to terminate employees for improper use of computers. Although it is most often because of adult Web sites and content, it can also be because of inappropriate e-mails. Unless your ministry has a strong privacy policy, it may have difficulty prevailing in a case resulting from such a termination. The terminated employee may believe his or her e-mail or hard drive was private. So consider the following two policies (Change "our ministry" to reflect your ministry’s name.):

1. Our ministry provides resources to facilitate employees’ contributions toward accomplishing its mission and reserves the right to examine all provided resources at any time and without warning. Such resources may include desks, desk drawers, computers, databases, communication systems, e-mails, voice mail, lockers, file cabinets, etc., secured or not. These resources are the property of our ministry and are therefore not private.
2. All computer systems are the property of our ministry and are provided to enable users to carry out their duties of employment and volunteerism, and all e-mail messages are and shall remain the exclusive property of our ministry. To ensure that its systems are dedicated to ministry purposes and are secure, our ministry maintains the right to monitor all computer systems and their use. Those using our ministry’s systems should not have any expectation of privacy in their use or in anything that is created or maintained on them.

A Policy That Protects the Staff

The Internet is a great tool. Like any tool, however, it can be abused. To protect your team, let them know your policy on Internet use. Consider the following:

Our ministry has established a system that allows certain users to browse the Internet and look at public Web sites. Logs are maintained that are regularly reviewed, listing each Web site visited by users and how long they were on each Web site. Users found to be viewing inappropriate Web sites will be counseled, may have their browsing permissions removed, or may, if deemed appropriate, be terminated. Prohibited sites specifically include, but are not limited to, pornographic, obscene, and so-called "adult" Web sites and gambling Web sites.

What would happen, however, if a team member who is weak in this area could walk up to almost any computer and use it without the restrictions associated with their own log-in ID? For this reason, you should also consider policies specifying what you consider to be secure passwords, whether those passwords can be shared with others, and whether computers can be left logged in while unattended. (See sidebar "Practical Church Computer Policies.") By improving these areas, you may be helping a weaker brother or sister.

Looking for an Information System Policy Resource?

In ministry, we trust each other. The world of computing is changing, though, and many ministries are looking for resources to help them keep up with the changing legal issues that accompany providing computers for staff use.

Ministry Business Services has put together a recommended and editable set of policies and procedures to help keep your ministry current in light of the new laws impacting computers in the workplace. They also include policies that help improve computer strategies, and are done with Christian ministry in mind. They are available at www.mbsinc.com.

—Nick B. Nicholaou, Huntington, California