E-Mail Giveth and Taketh Away

As the initial dust starts to settle from the contingentcommission investigation by New York Attorney General EliotSpitzer, one lesson learned is there is no privacy in the age ofthe Internet.

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Most computer users are blissfully unaware of how easy it is foranyone with some gumption or a complete lack of morals to see ourmost intimate or inane e-correspondence. They trust theirelectronic communications are privatethey just as well might walkdown the streets of their hometown naked.

In fact, thats 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 not as a technology executive but as Mr. or Ms. AverageComputer User standing on the main drag of your home city andsuddenly shedding your clothing (Ill give you a break, and wellalso say its sunny and 80 degrees outside). As you cavort sansvestments down the public thoroughfare, youll certainly draw someattention. People might stop and stare in amazement; maybe somewould cast admiring glances; others might laugh uncontrollably. Itseems fair to say, however, that unless exhibitionism is yourthing, the experience would leave your face a bit red and perhapsother parts of your anatomy, as well. The content of e-mails,instant messages, or chat contributions can be embarrassing on thatlevel, too.

Thats the lesson some highly placed executives from Marsh &McLennan Com-panies and some insurance companies have been learningas their e-mail is being used as evidence in the fraud andcollusion investigation announced by New York Attorney GeneralEliot Spitzer. Yes, Internet privacy is a joke, but no one at thefirms under investigation is laughing.

An online privacy watchdog site, www.privacyresources.org,puts the situation well: Who wants to know what youre saying? Itmight be a nosey co-worker, your employer, your ISP, a competitor,spouse, or legal team. Regardless of who wants to, it is remarkablyeasy for someone else to read what you write.

Its simply incredible supposedly educated, well-read individualscontinue to believe, as one of my colleagues recently said to me,delete means destroy. E-mail can hang around on servers (bothin-house and virtually anywhere on the Internet) for years. Evenwhere it has been deleted from a hard drive or a drive has beenwiped clean, e-mail can be recovered with the right technology. Butyou readers of this column already know these facts.

And Im certainly not the first one to trumpet this message.Thats what makes it all the more mind boggling these individualswould do things such as brazenly soliciting a contingent commissionagreement from a carrier via e-mail.
What is in the minds of these individuals who not only paradearound the cyber-universe naked but seem to do so unashamedly? Arewe dealing with a subculture of technology dimwits? Actually, Idont think so.

In another column (Bad Boys in Cyberspace, May 2004) dealingwith a survey that showed even top-level employees of some Britishcarriers had accessed confidential data that was off-limits, NewJersey psychologist Ronald Westrate commented, They do it becausethey can. Theres a certain sense of omnipotence. Its a veryarrogant gesture.

I think that kind of arrogance also is what is at work whenshady deals are conducted via e-mail. I dont think the individualswho do such things believe for a second they will get caught oranyone even would take notice. Theyre consumed by a power trip thatallows them to wield control over multimillion-dollar companieswith the click of a mouse. Theyre playing God. What do they care ifsome mere mortal hears their discourse?

So, I take great delight in pointing out the dangers of trustingthe privacy of e-mail because wrongdoers in our industry will bebrought down, and their downfall will result from their arrogantignorance of the technological facts of life.

In October, we saw the collapse of what Boston Red Sox ownerstermed the evil empire, when the swaggering New York Yankees wentdown to humiliating defeat at the hands of the Beantown bunch inthe American League championship. With Spitzer promising many morefraud cases to come, perhaps we now can look forward to thetoppling of the empire of arrogance in our own industry.

is technology editor for National Underwriters property/casualtyand life/health editions. He may be reached [email protected].