Can an email be forwarded without consent?

S

shesells

Registered User
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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.
 
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
 
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 !
 
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.
 
Let's go back to the question posed.

Answer:- There is nothing stopping anybody from "Forwarding" an email.
 
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.
 
PaddyBloggit said:
Surely Data Protection would have something to say about it?
Click to expand...


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
 
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

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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