10 Technology Disasters And Their Lessons

Public Service Announcement: Email Can Get You In Trouble

from the just-a-reminder dept

Fri, May 17th 2002 9:05am — Mike Masnick

Just a random reminder from your friendly Techdirt public service announcement department: any email you send can come back to haunt you. Every few months there's a news story somewhere about a company that got in trouble thanks to email evidence. And, every time, some news organization puts out one of these articles reminding everyone (yet again) that email evidence can get you in trouble. Yet, people continue to send damaging info over email. I don't think this is necessarily going to change. I think part of the reason email is so useful is that it is informal. If we force everyone to regard an email document like a real paper letter, email loses a lot of its usefulness. However, it still does cause legal problems. The best solution seems to be the "purge" solution where you get rid of all emails after 90 days or so.

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xdroop, 18 May 2002 @ 10:21am

long term usefulness
I'm one of those people you'd hate, then -- I'm a packrat who keeps just about everything ever emailed to me for ever. Of course, I write my emails assuming that it will be kept and get read by someone down the road and cast in the worst possible light.
I do this because I have hung too many people who say one thing and then deny it down the road. Screw them when they try to screw you, that's my motto.
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- Mike (profile), 18 May 2002 @ 11:02am
  
  Re: long term usefulness
  Heh. I wouldn't hate you, because I'm just as bad. What I was talking about in the post is basically what they say in the article. But, I'm a hypocrite, 'cause I keep just about everything. I still have access to emails I sent many many years ago.
  
  Sometimes it actually does come in handy. Just yesterday a friend needed some information she knew she had emailed me in either late '99 or early 2000, and I looked it up in my email.
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