Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.
Trending News
Email Disclaimers? Do they have any actual legal value?
An email was wrongly sent to me: This email had the following Disclaimer typed at the bottom of the text:
"This e-mail, including attachments, may include confidential and/or proprietary information, and may be used only by the person or entity to which it is addressed. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient or his or her authorized agent, the reader is hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by replying to this message and delete this e-mail immediately."
Does this verbiage have any legal standing? Am I required to "notify the sender" and "delete this wrongly addressed e-mail"? Why would I be obligate to correct someone else's mistake? Why would I need to delete it? E-mail is not like first class postage? The sender mistyped my e-mail address to a list about issues that I know nothing about.
Since the e-mail was in clear text, it is available to millions of readers globally, so how can this stay "private"?
Does this have any teeth. If I ignore it/delete it/or keep it. Under what theory could I be liable?
2 Answers
- ?Lv 410 years agoFavorite Answer
My first though is that this was a blanket CYA on the part of lawyer/cop to scare the ignorant.
If Spy_Glass is correct, then the law is an ***, for it puts the burden of security on the receiver of data not the sender. If some idiot sends data in clear text on which someone can profit, then it is not the user of wrongly received data. If cops raid the wrong address and shoots people, it is not the fault of the dead and wounded for being at home in their house.
If "corporate espionage" as well as "distributing trade secrets" can be asserted with the full terror of the state, then we do not live in a free society. Spy_Glass make this disclaimer, a Star Chamber getting into jail free card.
- 10 years ago
Not going to delve into everything here but here's the basics.
Yes it has teeth, but assuming the sender made a good faith mistake. If your e-mail is lala0102@example.com and their intended recipient is lala0201@example.com then it could be said the information was passed along to you by mistake but in good faith.
Now, the information within the e-mail is what gives the warning weight. Should the information be undisclosed financials and/or sensitive corporate information and then you send it else where. Then can go after you for a few things. I don't remember the exact statues or laws, however the favorite phrase of my law professors was 'corporate espionage' as well as 'distributing trade secrets'. If you used the information to give yourself a leg up on trading you could be nailed for insider trading even though you don't work there.
So yes, it has teeth, but only depending on the content.