Curmudgeon

Email Warnings & Disclaimers

I recently paid for a license plate renewal sticker on the Internet. As usual, I got an email confirmation. And, as often is the case, there was a little bit of garbage legal language pasted to the bottom of the email. I’ve seen this sort of drivel before and usually just ignore it, but for some reason I decided to actually read it this time. Weird. Disclaimer —— This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and contain privileged or copyright information. You must not present this message to another party without gaining permission from the sender. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy, distribute or use this email or the information contained in it for any purpose other than to notify the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State. I don’t know about you —— but I consider email in the same way I do a letter I receive by postal mail. Once I get the darn thing I am free to do as I please with it. Including making copies and / or sharing it with friends, etc. As far as I am concerned I can nail the darn thing to the nearest utility pole for everyone to read if I want to. 

I have this mental image of some department of email and Internet lawyers dreaming up ridiculous stuff to write on the bottom of emails trying to assert some authority over those who read them. Next there will be the email police I suppose. Actually I guess we already have that —— we call it Homeland Security?

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Email Warnings & Disclaimers

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