No private email services for govt employees

Government employees have been barred from using private email services for official communications, a move aimed at preventing snooping.

They “shall refrain from using private email servers from government network”, said the policy on use of IT resources, notified last week.

“Only those email service authorised by the government and implemented by the Implementing Agency (NIC, under this policy) shall be used for all official correspondence,” it added.

The new policy also bars officials from using forwarding emails to non-government email services. “The email services of other service providers shall not be used for any official communication,” said the notification. This policy is applicable to employees of the Central as well as state and Union Territory governments that use the Centre's email services.