Oxymorons and Confidentiality Notices
Many of our favorite oxymorons are funny because, while we understand the intent of the phrase, the words in the phrase are contradictory. Along with “Jumbo Shrimp” and “Voluntary Regulation,” we should consider “Confidentiality Notices” to be just as contradictory.
One such notice that appeared in my inbox recently tells me that if I am not the intended recipient, I am to destroy the email “without reading, using, copying or disclosing its contents to any other person.” OK…so how am I supposed to read the confidentiality notice at the bottom of the email without first having read the email? I am not informed that I shouldn’t read it until I have, in fact, already read it.
Typically, if postal mail is put into my mailbox that is not intended for me, I can clearly see this without opening the envelope. I simply jot a note on the envelope, put it back in my mail box and I am finished with it. I have no idea what it contains.
With an email, I can’t tell if it was intended for me until I have read it. So the confidentiality notice at the bottom is of little real use. Perhaps it reduces the liability of the sender, but it doesn’t make the information any more “confidential.” And it puts the entire responsibility for keeping your information private into the hands of someone who didn’t ask for that information in the first place, and perhaps doesn’t even know you.
Are you comfortable with that email security strategy?
Tags: email security
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