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Cautionary
Tales
Email
has changed the nature of communication, making conversations
more spontaneous and informal, while maintaining a written record
of these exchanges. Email has allowed businesses to distribute
information more easily than ever before, and let individuals
write letters to each other again.
But
these benefits also have a dark side -- a tenacious problem
that can hobble businesses and embarrass users. Email simply does
not go away. It is backed up, forwarded, duplicated, replied to,
and stored on tape. It is copied in multiple places between the
sender and the receiver and can even be resurrected after it's
been erased. These casual thoughts, "dashed off" in
an email, are permanently recorded, which is bad enough for individuals
but can be fatal for businesses. Companies have their emails used
as evidence against them in lawsuits every day, and they must
have a system to delete these messages as completely as a paper
shredder eliminates paper documents. Simply hitting the delete
key only makes that email a bit harder to find.
Following
is a list of articles illustrating the reason for concern.
While sensational, each of these situations points out how important
it is to have an email management policy.
Cautionary
tale #1: Warning: In May, 2000, Disney's CEO Michael
Eisner told the graduating class of USC that "I have come to believe
that if anything will bring about the downfall of a company, or
maybe even a country, it is blind copies of e-mails that should
never have been sent in the first place." See http://www.omaha.com/Omaha/OWH/APStoryViewer/1,3293,140389,00.html.
Cautionary
tale #2: A sexually explicit photo originating from
a deputy district attorney's computer in Las Vegas was intended
for one or two recipients, was forwarded to a senior judge and
inadvertently blind-cc'd to a longer list. Those involved will
be suspended without pay. See http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-gov/2000/feb/09/509825202.html.
Cautionary
tale #3: The New York Times had an email policy that
was legally airtight, but no tool for automated enforcement, so
the policy was generally ignored. Finally, in an effort to shield
itself from liability, the Times fired more than 20 staffers for
violating its email and Internet. See http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2432899,00.html.
Cautionary
tale #4: Catherine Davis kept a journal of thoughts
about her honeymoon. Unfortunately, she also had some deleted
email from Monica Lewinsky on her computer. Forced by Ken Starr
to turn over her notebook computer for forensic analysis, the
deleted email to Monica Lewinsky was recovered and published,
along with her journal.
Cautionary
tale #5:
E-mail containing jokes such as '25 reasons beer is better than
women' was used along with other evidence in a sexual-harassment
claim that was settled in 1995 for $2.2 million by a a subsidiary
of Chevron Corp.
Cautionary
tale #6:
After Siemens Solar Industries bought Arco Solar from Atlantic
Richfield Co., it found an email from one mid-level engineer to
another that said "As it appears that [ARCO's solar technology]
is a pipe dream, let Siemens have the pipe." That may not have
been what Atlantic Richfield's top executives really believed
about their technology, but it served as a striking point of evidence.
Cautionary
tale #7:
When Northwest Airlines workers were suspected of coordinating
a sick-out, the home computers of more than 20 Northwest Airlines
workers were seized for forensic examination in an effort to uncover
incriminating email. Along with email, other private correspondence
and financial records were examined.
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