I. Policies Regarding Ownership Of Information Stored on Electronic Media

All information, in any format, stored by any means on the County's electronic facilities (Voicemail, E-mail, computer network drives, hard disks, CD’s or individual diskettes, etc.) is the property of Westmoreland County and subject to inspection at any time without notice. Do not assume that any electronically stored information is private or inaccessible by others. In addition to periodic, unannounced review of stored material by authorized County employees, unauthorized persons might retrieve such information.

No county employee shall distribute data owned by the county without proper authorization by the Director of the Department responsible for that data and authorized to release it.

II. Corrective and Disciplinary Action

Violation of this policy can result in disciplinary action ranging from a warning, a suspension of Network, Voicemail, E-Mail or Internet access, suspension from employment, or dismissal from County employment, depending on the circumstances of the incident.

In addition, criminal prosecution and civil liability may apply to actions outside the scope of an employee’s office or duties, and found to involve willful misconduct, actual malice, actual fraud or criminal violations of law.