[TriLUG] [OT] E-mail privacy disclaimers

[Scott G. Hall]

Douglas R. Taber wrote:
> Shawn Hood wrote:
>> Just curious if anyone has had to fight evil corporate powers that
>> want to include an e-mail privacy/confidentiality disclaimer/statement
>> in e-mails.  It has always seemed wasteful and perhaps pointless to
>> me.  I know this is no legal forum, but perhaps someone on the list
>> has compiled some research to fight this kind of effort?  Save the
>> bandwidth and storage for something more meaningful!  ;)
>>   
> 
> As a common sense approach, I don't think you put a privacy disclaimer 
> on something transmitted in plain text any more than you can put 
> "confidential" on a billboard.

However I had a corporate manager explain to me that to simply put
"Confidential" somewhere on the email was enough to protect the company
regarding legal uses of the information.  It is the same as an internal
paper document -- you mark it "Confidential" in case someone outside
the company sees and acts on the information.  Nothing is going to stop
someone from reading and extracting the information if they see the
documents or email, but if the word "Confidential" is not included, the
company loses any legal protection they may have and wish to enforce if
private information is used in another enterprise.

So tell your corporate powers-that-be that they don't need a long
disclaimer to cover their legal rights -- they simply need the word
"Confidential", or to make it clear "Confidential - For Internal Use
Only".  Any additional wording doesn't change their legal protection
-- and could in court be construed to reduce their legal rights.

Its not going to stop nefarious behavior, but it allows the company
legal rights to do something about it if it happens.

Oh, and P.S.: Internal information and emails shouldn't be sent out
of the company unless required to conduct company business anyway.
The better protection for casual correspondence would be to use a
web-based email server whose sole function is to generate email from
employees that doesn't contain private information.

-- 
Scott G. Hall
Raleigh, NC, USA
ScottGHall at BellSouth.Net