Re: Confidentiality Statement: Emails

[Valdis Kletnieks <Valdis.Kletnieks () VT EDU>]

(Sorry for partial top-posting)...

The usual "this mail may be privileged yadda yadda yadda" disclaimers
are, quite frankly, a crock of manure. For starters, a "you shouldn't be
reading this" should appear *before* the text in question, so you can stop
reading, not at the bottom where things once seen cannot be unseen. Yeah,
try actually deploying that, see what your users do. ;)

Then there's the "please delete all copies" issue - did you *really* want that
*securely* deleted, in case somebody shows up at our site with a subpoena? If
so, better be willing to indemnify us for the costs of doing so.  As Colonel
Oliver North found out the hard way, "just hit delete" does *NOT* make it go
away:  http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/offdocs/reagan/chron.txt

Somebody else already mentioned the dilution effect of over-warning. And what
legal mine field are you possibly setting up for yourselves by sticking it on
*all* mail - when you post those disclaimers to public mailing lists, could
that lead to sudden "Due Diligence" issues surfacing when you least want them
to?

However, *this* disclaimer of Neil's is different:

On Thu, 21 May 2009 13:15:29 EDT, "Sachnoff, Neil" said:
> ****IMPORTANT NOTICE****
> All email communications with Middlesex County College employees are a
> matter of public record and subject to publication or release under both
> the State and Federal regulations as they pertain to their relative
> Freedom of Information Acts.

Congrats Neil - your site has obviously actually *thought* about the issues
rather than just tossing up Yet Another Disclaimer.

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