[geeks] Email Disclaimers

[Michael Parson]

On Wed, 6 Jul 2011, mail at catsnest.co.uk wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 10:44 PM, Edward Mitchell <ed at arxsystems.net> wrote:
>> On Jul 6, 2011, at 2:36 PM, Phil Stracchino wrote:
>>
>>> On 07/06/11 17:00, RichT (list addr) wrote:

>>>>>> This E-mail message is for the sole use of the intended
>>>>>> recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged
>>>>>> information. B Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or
>>>>>> distribution is prohibited. B If you are not the intended
>>>>>> recipient, please contact the sender by reply E-mail and destroy
>>>>>> all copies of the original message.
>>>>>>
>>>>> *hahahahaha*
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Do messages like this have any legal backup at all?  Sounds to me
>>>> like a load of mumbo jumbo.
>>>
>>> Not one damn thing. B They're not worth the paper they're printed
>>> on.  But it makes control-freak corporate lawyers feel like they're
>>> in control of something.
>>
>> That's not necessarily true or accurate. B You might want to do a
>> little research on both the legal aspects of email disclaimers and
>> the attorney ethics implications of email disclaimers. B Something
>> as simple as *where* in the message the disclaimer appears can
>> potentially change the calculus.
>
> Humm also what kind of cross border functionality would such
> Disclaimers have... e.g I live in the UK and it looked like that came
> from the USA.

Even better, what about when you live in the UK, the message came from
the USA, but at least one of the mail servers involved is in Finland?

It all goes back to what I was told a long time ago, and I have told
my users every since, don't put anything in an email that you wouldn't
write on the back of a post-card, it's got the same level of security
and privacy around it.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org
Austin, TX
KF5LGQ