Can an email be forwarded without consent?

[jhegarty]

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.

 

[AlbacoreA]

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.

 

[JoeB]

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?

 

[Complainer]

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.

 

[shesells]

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

 

[Latrade]

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.

 

[jhegarty]

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.

 

[Latrade]

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.