Sent mail slip-ups: When private emails go public11 November 2005
Email, the lynchpin of modern business communications: instant, easy-to-use and affordable for enterprises of any size. But, the quick and easy transfer of information has a flaw: a sent email cannot be retrieved. This, combined with human error, can lead to the most humiliating of consequences.
We've all enjoyed a giggle at our desks at the expense of the latest poor email author to find unwanted global fame as a result of an ill-advised note. Anyone who ever uses email, would do well to remember that hitting the "reply-to-all" button by mistake, or a little harmless forwarding, can turn into a cyberspace nightmare from which none of us is immune.
One city lawyer knows this better than most, after he sent what he thought was a private email to his secretary asking her to reimburse him for dry-cleaning costs arising from her accidentally spilling a drop of ketchup on his trousers. The secretary replied: "I must apologise for not getting back to you straight away but due to my mother's sudden illness, death and funeral I have had more pressing issues than your £4." She duly paid the £4, but repaid Philips' stinginess by copying the entire floor of her building in on the email exchange. Within hours it had been forwarded to inboxes all over the world.
Philips stood down from his £80,000 a year job in the wake of the incident. But, as Bloomberg's Matthew Lynn pointed out: "Certainly the ketchup e-mail revealed him as a stingy, peevish individual, with little regard for other people's feelings. Then again, how does that disqualify him from being a lawyer?"
The awful truth of it is that the reason we find these online gaffes so amusing is the same reason that the employers of those responsible find them so embarrassing - the very fact that this can even happen in a world where advanced technology and heightened security rule when it comes to the internet is the source of no-end of mirth, or mortification depending on which side of the management/staff divide you sit on.
Apart from a few red-faces, this incident was relatively harmless, but that isn't always the case. A schoolgirl from Devon received a spate of unsolicited emails from the Pentagon every day for six months, containing headache-inducing security leaks such as British warship communication flaws and national defence strategies. And all because one employee failed to spot a typo when creating a multiple mailing list. Say what you will about the US government, but that kind of internet idiocy is pretty embarrassing.
As is the strongly worded attack on the BBC's Newsnight's coverage of the Labour party campaign sent by spin-doctor Alistair Campbell in error to a journalist working for the programme. It was intended for a member of the advertising team responsible for party election material, and reportedly ranted that the media should 'go away and cover something else instead' in somewhat stronger language! You couldn't make it up.
Why not share any computer cringe-worthy computer clangers you've heard about with us? But remember - next time you are enjoying a confidential cyber-chat, the horror of a send button hit in haste could happen to you too!
- Share your funny email stories ot write a comment about this article. This may be posted as a follow on to this article for others to read and respond to. Note: All responses will be reviewed prior to uploading.
Anne from Wm Mailer & Sons writes:
"I recently received an email from a member of staff at my son's school which confirmed what I knew all along - that a member of staff had thrown water over him from a classroom window. Unfortunately for her, the rector was insisting no such incident had taken place and she was effectively a whistleblower as her email was intended for another staff member at the school - not me!"
