Work e-mail is not private. The e-mails can also be used for grounds for termination, especially for a LE person. For non-LE government employees it is almost as bad: Misuse of public property, could be subject to open records requests, etc.

.edu is a little better. Again, don't use work e-mail. However, I have a personal e-mail account from the colleges I have attended (alumni accounts). As long as you don't violate the TOS, I think it would be ok.

In any case, one should always hobby with an anonymous account.

Yeah, my sphincter would sure tighten up a bit if I started getting hobby-related emails from say, "[email protected]".  Yipes!  And not JUST because I'm a guy either - lol!

It's a little delicate, but if you have phone contact with these guys, you'll actually be doing them a favor telling them to set up a Gmail or Yahoo account completely separate from their work lives, for chrissakes.  In most employment situations an employer has the right to read an employee's email if they choose to, not to mention the possibility of a spouse or assistant coming across it.  So you are IMHO doing them a favor telling them to get an anonymous email.  You can also add "Please, no wire transfers over $2500".

At any rate, don't say anything in email that you wouldn't want to see posted on theSmokingGun.com tomorrow.  

yes and...

I had a call from a client (I'm sure former client now) asking me why I sent him an email.  

He had contacted me via a work email once before, we saw one another and he sent me an email afterwards thanking me for the session.  I emailed back that I would be happy to let him know the next time I was back in town.  So, I emailed when I was returning to the area.  I guess the email must have arrived at an inopportune time because he called to admonish me.  I felt horrible!  I would never want to cause anyone to have issues related to seeing me.

Lesson learned- no work emails, ever.  I'm sure at the time he felt it would be harmless but you never know when it might cause a problem at work.  So, I would advise ALL hobbyists to have a totally seperate, "play" email for the hobby.

XO
Melanie

They keep a copy of all email sent and received...

I run my own business but have to use IT guys to maintain my servers..Dont need these guys trying to figure out what I am up to..

"how do i nicely say...are you fing crazy?"
You don't, you just say "are you f***ing crazy?".

It's really warranted in this case, especially when it's coming from someone in le, or worse yet (I think) the *head* of an ivy league medical school department.

I mean, isn't *that* guy supposed to have a brain?

Also, to add to some of the other excellent comments in this thread, not only do corporate empires check your email and web surfing habits, many of them monitor right down to your *keystrokes*, so they know *exactly* what you've been doing, and who you've been communicating with.

...On the other hand--and not just to defend stupidity--as a professional you sometimes see the utility in contacting someone from a "legit" e-mail, e.g., [email protected], as opposed to an often silly-sounding anonymous e-mail, e.g., [email protected]. And when you're worried about security from the provider's perspective, then you make the mistake of using work e-mail, which as has been pointed out, is just dumb. Your worries are legitimate--any respectable corporation should at least archive (if not at least heuristically screen) e-mails.

Except if, like me, you run your own company and servers and delete all your backups quite frequently.

But now that I've my feet wet in the community I feel confident enough to use an anonymous e-mail, though I still feel silly hiding behind an obfuscated handle. Just like my handle on this board. :p

t/c

As pointed out already, some orgs not only monitor email and web browsing, and maybe even keystrokes etc…Gov agencies and larger publicly traded corps warehouse all email transactions.

The focus is usually on the client taking risks using company email and as a provider, you’re not the one getting a long vacation when IT catches on. But, as a provider, regardless of how diligent you are personally in deleting email,  if the org your client works for is storing all of his email, and he’s using that addy to talk to you, then you’re in the system too. And (a number of factors depending) this data can be stored virtually indefinitely by Gov/corp orgs.

Now why would anyone ever be interested in your email stored on some gov/corp server somewhere? Who knows? But, lets say  a lawsuit comes up—and your client is involved in some way—something as simple as having had some tertiary level of email exchange surrounding the suit---his mail is going to get pulled and scrutinized, and you never by whom.

But, you really don’t get around this dilemma when using hotmail, yahoo, gmail…etc…that mail gets stored as well (sometimes even after the mail account holder deletes it). So Inet anonymous email is not as anonymous as people would like to think. POP mail is a good choice—but again, that may not eliminate the problem entirely--depends on a number of factors

Chances are, your email is getting backed up on some server somewhere, no matter how careful you think you’re being, and no need to lose any sleep over it.

Discretion with content is the key. As a client, unless you own your own business or have direct control over the mail servers, NEVER use your work addy. For providers,  it just makes good sense to keep your email exchanges off gov/.edu/corp domains, whenever possible; if for no other reason than to avoid having *your* email content stored on some gov/corp server until the end of time.

If the computer belongs to the company, they have the right to install monitoring software.  If you are accessing your personal accounts through their computer it may still show up.  I'm not sure if wireless connection to a personal lap top would show up.  There are new hitech internet access devises that might be an option.  
People who are sloppy are taking unnecessary risks.  

The same applies to phones, phone records...  

I think that a knowledgeable professional would suggest to the client that an annonimous account would be more discrete.  (Just as I messaged a provider that her ad revealed too much information.)  
I imagine that the majority of the risk falls on the client in this case but I don't think the publicity would do a lady's business any good if some knuckle-brain gets outted.  

I DO occasionally message a fav with requests from a Y acct.  We never discuss business.
S

...but your blurry picture will end up in my iPhone's "Special Friends" group.