E-Mail: Lets Get Naked!

By Ara C. Trembly

Privacy is certainly an issue that's grabbing a lot of headlinesthese days, yet few of us, I think, realize how ridiculous aconcept this is in the age of the Internet.

It's not that anyone is actually trying to convince us that mailon the Internet is totally secure. Rather, it seems we areblissfully unaware of how easy it is for anyone with some gumptionor a complete lack of morals to see our most intimate or inanee-correspondence.

Yes, I'm talking about e-mail and instant messaging and chatroom chatter and just about anything else you type or speak intoyour computer when you're online.

In the early days of the World Wide Web, people used to talkabout how the Web might do away with commercial publishingaltogether, because individuals could “publish” their thoughts viathe Internet. While I'm happy to say that commercial publishing isalive and well, those people had a point. Anything you send outonto the information highway can be spotted by other drivers oreven bystanders, who may also go by the name of “hacker” or“systems administrator.”

Do you really want your company's IT department to read thate-mail you wrote to your husband about the boss being a “butthead?”Are you really OK with having some stranger (in fact, manystrangers) in a chat room know about your “boom-boom night inVegas?” More importantly, do you really want to expose your companyor agency's precious information to the possible scrutiny ofcompetitors, data thieves and hackers?

If you trust that your electronic communications are private,you might just as well walk down the streets of your hometownnaked. In fact, that's a good analogy for what happens when we sendmessages out from home or corporate computer systems.

I know this seems like one of those bad dreams, but pictureyourself standing on the main drag of your home city and suddenlyshedding your clothing. As you cavort sans-vestments down thepublic thoroughfare, you'll certainly draw some attention.

Your banker, for example, could get an entirely new view of your“assets.” The UPS person may be pleasantly or unpleasantlysurprised by your “package.” The butcher could begin ruminatingabout “flank” steaks or “rump” roast.

People might stop and stare in amazement; maybe some would castadmiring glances; others might laugh uncontrollably. It seems fairto say, however, that unless exhibitionism is your thing, theexperience would leave your face a bit red, and perhaps other partsof your anatomy as well.

Is any of the content of your e-mails, instant messages or chatcontributions embarrassing on that level? Only you know, butchances are your online business correspondence contains plenty ofinformation that competitors, information brokers, hackers andother hostile parties would love to have. And getting thatinformation is often not a problem.

An online privacy watchdog site,www.privacyresources.org, puts the situation well: “Whowants to know what you're saying? It might be a nosey coworker,your employer, your ISP, a competitor, spouse or legal team.Regardless of who wants to, it is remarkably easy for someone elseto read what you write.”

The fact is that most e-mail you send may go through severalservers at far-flung sites before it gets to you. It's a simplematter for anyone with access to such servers to pull up yourpersonal correspondence.

Surely, you say, they don't keep all that stuff on theirservers; it must get deleted at some point. That may or may not beso, but it's interesting to note that government agencies like theCIA actually can recover e-mails and other files that have beenerased multiple times from hard disks and other media. And the badnews is that the bad guys often have the same (or better)technology savvy as the government agencies.

So, an e-mail you sent years ago may resurface, and suddenlyyou're responsible for an information leak that might hurt youragency's chance for a big account or put your company in violationof the new federal privacy regulations.

What can you do? It may surprise you to hear from me thattechnology is not the complete answer. Yes, there are e-mailfiltering services that can help prevent you and/or your employeesfrom sending out critical information via e-mail or IM, and Icertainly recommend that you look into these.

The bottom line, though, is that all of us need to stop being soblas? about the electronic messages we send. Each time you send ane-mail, ask yourself: “Could this information potentially harm myagency/company or my clients?” If there's any doubt, snail mail orovernight delivery services may be a wiser choice.

“Getting naked” may be just fine on certain celebrated beachesin Brazil, but in cyberspace, it's an invitation to have yourpockets assuming you have any picked.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property &Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, March 25, 2004.Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.