# Can an email be forwarded without consent?



## shesells (27 May 2011)

Without giving the specific details...say A sends an email to B with concerns about C (B is an employee of A). A sacks B and for whatever reasons B emails A & C attaching the email sent with concerns.

I thought there was something saying that emails cannot be forwarded without the consent of the originator...did I dream this? It's an acrimonious situation and B is playing dirty and has done this. The sacking/contract termination is legitimate.


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## ajapale (27 May 2011)

Moved from   to  Employment Rights.


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## shesells (27 May 2011)

It's not actually an employment issue, it's to do with a contracted agency for an organisation. It may be legal but it's specific to email hence it was posted there. Couldn't find anything quite similar on dataprotection.ie


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## alexandra123 (27 May 2011)

So A is the manager. The manager sent a mail to Employee A about concerns with the Agency - which is more than likely something that the agency would NOT like to hear. 

In the meantime the manager sacks A , so A get on his high horse and sends the mail onto the agency to get up the managers nose. 


I dont think this falls under the data protection act. It depends on the information that was sent. if this information was about performance of the overall agency, then I dont think their is anything you can do. If the information was sent outside of the company - example to another company with no affiliation then maybe something can be done but it would depend on the content. 

I would just let it go and take a lesson from it. Never send a mail that you dont want someone else to read - if it is really that private. 

If it is that private - their should be a way to block the mail from being forwarded or replied too. Otherwise , you could specify as a footer in all your mails - that under no circumstances should this mail be sent onto another party without prior consent from the originator. Either way I dont think this would stand up in court.

Data protection act is about protecting peoples data -like maybe phone number, address etc. I dont think performance falls under this category.

Hope this helps !


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## shesells (27 May 2011)

Nope...not quite the situation. 

A is the organisation (non-commercial). The organisation hired B (an agency) to look after the day to day running of the organisation. C is a third party, interested in merging with A in a way that may not have been in keeping with the articles of association of A.

To further confuse things, the emails were sent to a specific person in B where their email is john.smith@b.com and were forwarded by another individual working in B.


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## Purple (28 May 2011)

I'm confused....


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## Leper (28 May 2011)

Let's go back to the question posed.  

Answer:- There is nothing stopping anybody from "Forwarding" an email.


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## PaddyBloggit (28 May 2011)

but ... is it legal to do so without the original sender's consent?


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## jpd (28 May 2011)

Of course it is.


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## PaddyBloggit (28 May 2011)

Is there a law that covers the 'of course it is'?


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## ajapale (28 May 2011)

I am unaware of any law or regulation which prohibits forwarding an email.


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## PaddyBloggit (28 May 2011)

Surely Data Protection would have something to say about it?


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## jhegarty (28 May 2011)

PaddyBloggit said:


> Surely Data Protection would have something to say about it?



No data protection issues that I am aware of.


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## ajapale (28 May 2011)

Google "is it legal to forward emails" for some interesting reading on the issue.

I dont imagine there is any problem with forwarding emails in general but if the contents defame or break the law in some other way then obviously this would be a problem.


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## huskerdu (29 May 2011)

PaddyBloggit said:


> Surely Data Protection would have something to say about it?




I had a look at the website of the Data Protection Commission. 

THe data protection act protects the use of an individual  personal details held on a computer by an organisation. 

On the subject of forwarding emails, they are only concerned about forwarding people email address as this "may" be personal information. There is no indication that the contents of an email is the personal details of the sender 

[broken link removed]

My understanding is that once I have sent someone an email, the contents belong to them, and I no rights to control what they do with those contents , unless, as ajapale points out, there is alegal problem with the contents


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## PaddyBloggit (29 May 2011)

OP ... Going by huskerdu's post ... if your email address is seen in a forwarded email you may have a case under Data Protection.

Worth looking into.


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## Complainer (29 May 2011)

PaddyBloggit said:


> OP ... Going by huskerdu's post ... if your email address is seen in a forwarded email you may have a case under Data Protection.



I think you're clutching at straws here. The DP Commissioner recommends using bcc when sending bulk emails, but it is a big leap to say that you cannot forward an email address.

TO the OP, the fact that they forwarded an email is irrelevant. There is no specific legislation about forwarding emails or requiring consent. Focus on the information that was in the email - did B breach any terms of their contract by forwarding the email? From your later posts, it does not seem to be clear that it was actually B who forwarded the email.


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## shesells (29 May 2011)

Sorry I can't be more specific right now...we have now put a footer in emails to B (working notice period) that says the contents may not be forwarded without our consent.

B is an agency, email was sent to a named individual but was forwarded by another individual in B.


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## Complainer (29 May 2011)

shesells said:


> ..we have now put a footer in emails to B (working notice period) that says the contents may not be forwarded without our consent.



I'm not sure this would stand up in court. You really need to get a clause into your contract for services with B.


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## shesells (30 May 2011)

It's about making a point...the situation should not arise again


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## jhegarty (30 May 2011)

shesells said:


> Sorry I can't be more specific right now...we have now put a footer in emails to B (working notice period) that says the contents may not be forwarded without our consent.
> 
> B is an agency, email was sent to a named individual but was forwarded by another individual in B.



A contract requires agreement from two sides.

One shouldn't be sending confidential information via email anyway as it's about as secure as a postcard.


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## AlbacoreA (30 May 2011)

Don't put anything in email you wouldn't want on the 9 O'Clock news. 

Its not secure. 

If forwarding is illegal or not. I have no idea. I couldn't find any test cases. If you have someone who has signed a Non Disclosure Agreement, that might be an easier route.


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## JoeB (30 May 2011)

You're sending these emails over an unsecured, non-private network. (Most likely) So they can be read by anybody with the technical expertise and equipment.

Perhaps you are giving up your right to privacy by using such a method?, similar to sending a postcard?

In other words, if a judge would rule that reading a postcard is ok, but not opening and reading a letter, then he may also say that reading an unsecured email is also ok, obviously ok if read by mistake (similar to postcard),.. but perhaps not ok if methods were needed to read (similar to steaming open a letter)..

I've made all that up, but the issues may be real..  email is inherently unsecure, so your expectation of privacy was flawed from the start.


edited to add: Google street View cars are equipped with 'sniffers' which sniff out unsecured networks, and copy the unsecured data passing through. Is this legal?


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## Complainer (30 May 2011)

shesells said:


> It's about making a point...the situation should not arise again



Adding a line to the end of emails doesn't 'make a point'. If you want to make a point, you need to sit down with the lead person from B, look them in the eye, and make it clear that this can't happen again. Then you need to get a line about confidentiality into your contract with B.


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## shesells (31 May 2011)

If I could add the detail it would all make sense. Thanks for the input.


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## Latrade (31 May 2011)

I'm not aware of emails being fully tested, but I would presume that it follows a similar line to hard copy correspondence. The addressed recipient owns the contents of the letter, not the sender IIRC.

The main issue is then on how far you would have to go to protect or hide the identity of the sender. Largely (again IIRC) naming the individual or even organisation might be ok in some circumstances, but you may have to hide specific contact details and details of anyone cc'd etc. 

Plus you'll see this everywhere, disgruntled people publishing emails received (executives of FIFA), etc. No action taken, because as far as I'm concerned no action can be taken.

So my guess is that irrespective of whatever disclaimer is put on the bottom of emails, as the recipient, I can forward it, print it and publish it to whoever I want. 

And that's it. In a business capacity, if you want to send confidential or potentially compromising information, do not send it by email.


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## jhegarty (31 May 2011)

Latrade said:


> The addressed recipient owns the contents of the letter, not the sender IIRC.



There is a view that one can claim copyright as the creater of the email. 

Not aware of any test cases.


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## Latrade (31 May 2011)

jhegarty said:


> There is a view that one can claim copyright as the creater of the email.
> 
> Not aware of any test cases.


 
Nope and I'm about to do a backtrack right now where if I were a brazen politician I'd be saying I was quoted out of context. That's long hand for I was completely wrong. Checked with legal eagles and they say it's complicated.

In hard copy, you gift the individual the paper and envelope, but you retain copyright/ownership of the text. Therefore they would need your permission to copy or distribute this. But that's easy with hard copy.

No test cases for emails yet, but given how they are distrubuted, stored, etc, you defacto give permission for some form of copying etc by sending, but the limitations of this are unknown at the moment.

So it appears that if it is forwarded without your permission, then there is a case to be answered if you wish. It could be a case under copyright infringement, but then you'd have to show a monetary value/worth to the text and you would have to be 100% copyright holder.


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