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Legal Tips
- Cyberspace is a public place and hiding in it is very difficult, if not impossible. The contents of your email might just as well be spread across a galactic size billboard bathed in neon lights beating back the inky darkness; a Las Vegas style announcement and you're the headliner, the main event. Libel, slander, and defamation are prosecutable so don't be mean.
- Be mindful of what you say. Comments that are not appropriate in the office/workplace are not appropriate in Cyberspace either. Sexual harassment, racial intimidation, age discrimination, demeaning jokes, etc., have no place in business email. Stick to the task at hand and be respectful of your colleagues, customers, and competitors. Oh…and your boss, too. What you say can stick around for a long time and may come back to haunt you.
- Include disclaimers in your email whenever warranted. Here are some pointers:
- Carefully and clearly state the liability for any breach of confidentiality, purposeful or accidental.
- Remind recipients of their responsibility to check for and protect against importing possible viruses.
- Identify those persons authorized to sign legally binding contracts on your behalf, insulate yourself from negligent misstatements and misguided advice between an employee and a third party.
- And finally, state clearly that your employees have been educated and warned against email misuse and abuse.
- The inclusion of disclaimers in a business email does not absolve anyone of having committed and email crime. Nor does it insulate you absolutely from the long arm of the law. It merely provides an indication of best intent; it may protect you and, then again, it may not.
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