does anyone (i mean providers) get a little nervous when clients email them from certain addresses?

for example i have a client that i have not yet met, that works for a certain branch of l.e. that sends me email from his .gov account.

luckily i asked before i emailed him back, what exactly he does.  and another  that's the married head of a  mdphd program at an ivy league school that sent me a three paragraph email from his ivyleague.edu account about having sex.  i was wowed.

how do i nicely say...are you fing crazy? never do that again! or am i paranoid to think that anyone is actually reading or cares?

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.  

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...

using an e-mail account that is NOT linked to family, church, work or govenment addys is not a big deal - it does take a nanosecond of forethought and a femtomole of carbohydrate metabolism....  however, having said that - when I rejoined the hobby ranks after being away from it during my marriage... well, i lept into it...  fortunately I had some mentors who helped me... and taught me the ropes...  One who is no longer on the boards, but we did exchange e-mails and such... great guy.. and his list of ladies that he saw was the envy of me!  many of them have retired... or just gone away....

but back to the topic... you are NOT fing paranoid... there are automated e-mail review programs that can and do scan your e-mail.  especially if you are working for a big brother company.... heck, visit ONE (count 'em one)
porn site and you is history!  gone, finite, escorted from the building...  a side story, I knew one dude... who viewed porn on his computer at work, they came in and asked him to come to a meeting in the board room.... they pulled up his web history.... and said - resign - or we will pursue firing you - and Make your viewing known to your family!!!  all this said by the guys boss....   couse what happened 6 months down the road???  the boss was caught using the company's apt for liaisons with his own cutie - who was NOT his wife! lol!!!

yea... please do not do this stuff.... from a corporate email not  a good concept...

and e-mail - (and I don't care if the lady keeps no records...) is permanant... more than permanant.... it is forever.... the servers are backed up.... etc.  and all can be retrieved....

just don't do it!!!

so while I've never met you - you are correct and smarter than the head of the MD/PHD program at the ivy league school......    and I would be willing to be it was Penn!

they are not well there! not well at all - see my rants on the P&R board.... murder - rape - drugging - illegal (or at least immoral) use of prisoners for medical research - risky use of patients in clinical studies - and the list goes on and on and on.....

Thank you for this note of caution!!!

And on topic... do not move money to hide the use of money....   that is what drew the attention to spitzer...

I have decided long ago that no matter what it is a Gent I may see does, if it makes me even the littlest bit uncomfortable, such as a very detailed email, an email address or just a feeling I get but can't put my finger on what it is, I don't even contact them back. I had a voice mail today and it was as simple as the tone of his voice. Nothing wrong with it really I just didn't like it so...I won't be seeing him. ( to be totally honest with you, he just sounded Stupid) you know how that is...
If for what ever reason explainable or not, it's your call. If you are not ok with it...don't see him.

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.

If someone owns his own business and maintains the servers himself, work email can be the smartest plan of all so as to not raise suspicions with cookies for gmail or yahoo accounts lying around.

Not only that but an email from a work account could itself serve as verification to a provider.

And finally an email inquiry to a provider could be worded as a discreet offer to meet which sounds like a customer meeting or other business meeting.  I suspect many providers receiving such an email would catch on and understand the message.

Seriously, you got a market on the idiots ?

I will not attract idiots - repeat ...



xo Lisa

...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

...is two years. It seems that Gmail will push back an administrative subpoena or strongly worded letter from coughing up your e-mail, but Hotmail gives in pretty quick. Don't know about Yahoo!, but if they get bought by MS, then I'm sure they'd follow suit with the latter.

t/c

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

it seems like some of the brightest have no common sense...