Policies and Standards are enforceable measures intended to promote appropriate use. They can be developed by governments, businesses, and private groups or individuals. They normally consist of rules governing access to, or use of, information, hardware and software. For example, a national policy on IT security would need to define what constitutes unlawful access to networks and how to treat transgression. Policies also affect the exchange of information, for example, by making it subject to copyright laws. In general, policies can promote or restrict access, modify behaviour or require the fulfillment of certain conditions prior to or during use. Standards are social or technical rules and conventions that enable compatibility and therefore facilitate communication or interoperability between different IT systems and their components. They might govern the design and use of hardware, software and information. For example, communication protocols used on the Internet, the ASCII representation for characters, or the design of the printer port on a personal computer are all governed by standards.

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Why the Law and Tech Aren't Friends on Myspace The management at Houston's restaurant had monitored their employees using a social networking site. They fired two employees for harsh comments written about the management, which is a violation of monitoring laws, and in turn is an issue of Policies and Standards.