Using email - What you have not been told
By Jon Fletcher - Managing Director
Email security
There you sit in the privacy of your office, home or desk space, typing a confidential email to a work colleague. You press the send button and off whisks the electronic message, straight to your colleagues desktop, protected by username and password, for their eyes only... the illusion of privacy is compelling.
Even for those of us who know better, it is difficult to remember that a typical email message has all the privacy of a megaphone conversation and the security of an inner city tent. Let’s take a look at the reality of your confidential correspondence:
Your private message is recorded on your PC - when was the last time you changed your password or ensured your PC was logged off every time you leave your desk? When you dispose of your PC, do you destroy the hard drive?
There are many points at which your email can be copied and routed to someone else and typically there is almost no security in place at all. Much the same is the case with good old-fashioned paper communications, with letters being handled by a wide range of people before dropping on your desk. The difference is that it is simplicity itself to leave an automated system watching your email, recording anything that matches certain parameters - and there is effectively no trace at all that the message has fallen into the wrong hands.
A business acquaintance of mine was transferred to the States last year and had to continue working with colleagues in this country, mainly communicating via email. Her assumption was that the emails were secure and private, and a certain ‘laxity’ crept in over time when referring to her boss. All went fine until the company’s MD decided to get a home PC configured to receive business email. A helpful technician, who was setting things up, offered to include a system that allowed the monitoring of staff email. My acquaintance no longer works for that company!
Everyone using email should operate under the assumption that it is an open form of communication that will, at the very least, be seen by any member of staff at the sending and receiving companies.
Simple interfaces lead to simple errors
One of the most common errors made when sending emails comes from the handy auto-complete recipient address facility. You start typing the address, your email software completes it, you don’t really pay attention and hey presto your latest sales projections go straight to your dentist.
Although guilty of this particular error myself (sorry again to the Nick who isn’t our Nick) my favourite example was when I received an email from someone else’s boss telling him off for sending emails out to the wrong client.
Informality breeds contempt
Most people know how to write a letter - not the address conventions and the sincerely/faithfully rules - but the controlled use of language that comes from realising that something ‘on paper’ has a significance over and above the spoken word.
Legally, and in all other senses, an email communication is identical to a letter on company headed paper. Contracts can be entered into via email, emails are permissible as evidence in court and they can most definitely be used to clarify disputes at a later time. The problem is that most people have come to use email as a form of informal shorthand, the text equivalent of a conversation in the corridor at work. If you knew, however, that the rushed conversation you just had was being recorded, your agreements were binding and comments legally admissible then you may pause to consider your words more carefully.
The very nature of an informal rushed communication can even alter the perceived meaning of your words. Without the time to craft clear unambiguous sentences, a two-line email bashed out between meetings can misrepresent you completely.
Email shortcuts
Hated by some, but so useful to others, are the ’smilies’.
I almost feel I should be advocating that sufficient time be spent on crafting emails to make the use of such literary shortcuts redundant. Realistically, however, we sometimes need to send a quick email and don’t have the time to spend on anything more than a two liner. If adding a quick smile 
can get the message across then so be it – though I reserve the right to hold a little righteous 
in reserve.
Email signatures
All email clients (software) allow you to append a section of text, images and links to the base of your message.
All email clients (software) allow you to append a section of text, images and links to the base of your message. This is used at its best when including your name, full contact details, web site and a ‘brief’ legal disclaimer. This latter point can be taken too far and it sometimes feels that 90% of the text I receive via email is a disclaimer of one sort or another.
If you use a mobile device to send emails, make sure that you add a signature that matches your main one but also indicates that the message has been sent from your iPhone/Blackberry/laptop. This avoids having to explain that while you have just sent an email, you are not available to take a call in the office.
If you have any email anecdotes or comments that you’d like to share and have listed here please send them to
Anecdotes sent in so far:
“On the topic of signatures. One of our agencies has a multi-paragraph legal disclaimer that gets added to emails and replies to emails. In a recent exchange they managed to add 2040 words of repeated disclaimer to the final email in the sequence.” Jane
“Despite having an open plan office, one employee managed to run a small business using his company email account. He even asked for mail to be forwarded when his contract was terminated!!” Simon
“Grin and frown are fine as smilies, but take care to avoid a smilies arms race. We spend as much time looking up the latest arcane combination of symbols as we do reading the email.” Ken
Can we help?
Legally, and in all other senses, an email communication is identical to a letter on company headed paper.