Your Personal Email Is Not Safe: You Best Watch What You Say

On May 30, 2008 a New Jersey State Superior Court determined that emails sent and received on a private email service are subject to legal discovery under the Freedom of Information Act. This ground-breaking ruling relates specifically to emails that were exchanged between NJ Governor Jon S. Corzine and Carla Katz, a state union leader he once dated. However, the implications of this ruling are expected to have a widespread impact. In short, your personal email is not safe.

According to a recent Proofpoint study, 34% of the largest companies (20,000 employees or more) reported that employee email was subpoenaed in the last 12 months. While the data does not specify the inclusion of employee’s personal email, the precedent set by the NJ State Superior Court indicates that what you write in your personal email (eg: Gmail, YahooMail) can be subpoenaed. While there exist other examples of employee’s personal email being called into court; these cases were limited to emails accessed through corporate servers (ie: when you access Gmail in the office, the gloves come off). However, this ruling seems to indicate that messages sent from home or your mobile device are fair game too; especially if they mention business matters.

Many experts advise that you use a personal email account for non-work related email. However, it now seems that anything you say or do online can be used against you. The bottom line: It doesn’t matter where you write it, anything you write online can be used against you.

My advice: Never mention anything business-related in your personal emails. If you are not comfortable sending a message through your work account, you probably shouldn’t send it through your personal account.

Data Leaks Through Email

A Proofpoint study “Outbound Email and Data Loss Prevention in Today’s Enterprise, 2008” has revealed some interesting data points on the dangers of using email and other online communication channels in the workplace.

Roger Matus highlighted some of the key findings on his blog Death By Email:

• 44% of companies reported that they investigated an email leak of confidential information in the past 12 months.
• 41% of the largest companies surveyed (those with 20,000 or more employees) reported that they employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the contents of outbound email.
• 26% of companies surveyed terminated an employee for violating email policies in the last 12 months.
• 23% of U.S. companies surveyed said their business was impacted by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information in the last 12 months.
• 34% of the largest companies (20,000 employees or more) reported that employee email was subpoenaed in the last 12 months.

In addition to email, companies must be aware of the inherent dangers of allowing employees free access to blogs, message boards, media sharing sites, and mobile devices.

• 27% of companies surveyed had investigated the exposure of confidential, sensitive or private information from lost or stolen mobile devices in the past 12 months.
• 11% of U.S. companies surveyed disciplined employees for improper use of blogs/message boards in the past 12 months.
• 13% of surveyed companies disciplined employees for social network violations and 14% for improper use of media sharing sites in the past 12 months.
• 14% of publicly traded companies surveyed had investigated the exposure of material financial information (such as unannounced financial results) on blogs or message board postings in the last 12 months.

The bottom line: Email is a critical business application and is not going away. Additionally, new media channels like blogs, message boards, and social networking sites are proving to be useful tools for marketing, collaboration, and research. However, companies and employees must understand the inherent risks associated with these applications. Employers should lay down specific guidelines for employees and incorporate technologies to track and prevent inappropriate use of such channels.

Gmail’s Mail Fetcher: Why You Shouldn’t Forward Messages into a Single Account?

So what’s up with e-mail forwarding? Most people have multiple e-mail accounts and find it a pain to access each one individually. Many email providers allow users to set their accounts to automatically forward all messages to a single universal email address. So why don’t more people do this?

I have found that most people shy away from email forwarding because they like to keep their inboxes separate. According to eMarketer, more than 94% of users in the U.S. (~160 million) utilize at least two e-mail accounts, and 65% of users (~128 million) employ three or more (3+) accounts. A principal reason users have multiple accounts is to stay organized. Personally, I have an account for business, an account for personal use, and an account for my newsletters (my “bacon” or “becn”). I like it that way. I know when I am in my business account, it’s all business. When I am in my personal account, it’s all fun. And my third account is for shopping, reading random newsletters, and killing time.

Gmail offers a forwarding service called Mail Fetcher. Mail Fetcher allows users to access up to 5 non-Gmail email accounts from within the Gmail interface. You can set Mail Fetcher to tag the messages by their source accounts through a color-coded labeling feature.

I am not sold on Mail Fetcher for various reasons. The first reason is that users are required to configure their POP3 server settings to utilize this solution; and most people do not know how to do this. Furthermore, some email services do not offer POP3 capability and others, like Yahoo and Hotmail/Live, charge for the privilege. Most importantly, however, I don’t like Mail Fetcher because it is not an effective organization tool. In my opinion, there is no substitute for the folder structure offered by email clients like Outlook or Thunderbird. Because you cannot filter or sort messages by their source account into separate folders, Mail Fetcher and other forwarding features simply add more clutter to your inbox. I have separate accounts for very specific reasons; my email needs to be organized and neither Mail Fetcher nor email forwarding is the solution. Sorry Google.

A Check List: Considering Leaving Your Day Job?

If you are considering leaving your day job to start your own business, there are some serious questions you must ask yourself. I did not erratically jump ship when I got bit by the entrepreneur bug. Before leaving my 9-5 (or rather my 8am-1am finance gig), I made sure that I assessed the risks and weighed the benefits.

If you think coming up with the idea is the hard part, you are mistaken. Certainly good ideas don’t come along everyday, but I can promise you that conceiving the idea is actually the easiest part. The process for determining if you should go off on your own is long, hard, and involves some serious introspective examination.

In general, investors look at three types of risks: 1) Market Risk, 2) Technology Risk, and 3) Execution Risk. When determining if you should go into business for yourself, you should weigh the same questions.

The first two are obvious. To quantify market risk, you need to ask “Is my concept/idea/product marketable?” “Does it solve a real problem?” “Will people pay for it or can I find a way to monetize it?” Most importantly, “Is this something that I need?” , “Will I use it?” To address the technology risk considerations you need to ask “Can this be done?” “Can I build it or find people to build it?” Both require extensive due diligence, and I personally spent a long time researching and writing everything down into a draft business plan before even considering leaving my job. Writing a business plan is a painful but critical step. (More on that to come later)

However, the third type of risk: Execution Risk can not be quantified by typical research. It involves serious self examination, understanding your personal limitations, financial situation and relationships with family and friends. To help you determine if you are ready to go off on your own, I have created a check list of questions I asked myself before submitting my letter of resignation:

1) Do I have an entrepreneur’s personality?

An entrepreneur is a person who thrives under pressure, enjoys challenges and is self-motivated. You must be a high-energy person who is not afraid of hard work and long hours. Passion is a must. If you are not passionate about your business, you will find it hard to wake up every morning.

2) Am I willing to make sacrifices?

Becoming an entrepreneur can flip your life upside down and usually involves sacrificing customary ways of life and creature comforts. It is about more than cutting back on luxuries and discretionary expenses. For some, it even means moving in with Mom and Dad. The strain can affect relationships; girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, and best friends can be lost. When you become committed to realizing your dream, you may find yourself alienated from those who are central to your life. Balancing work and life becomes much more difficult and you have to be prepared to accept that.

3) Do I have the proper support system?

Not every entrepreneur is fortunate enough to have a strong family, supportive spouse, or rich aunt. But every entrepreneur must be aware of the role the people in their lives will play and how their startup will affect those individuals. You must consider your family and loved ones when starting your own business as it will most certainly affect their lives as well.

4) Do I have the financial resources to quit my job?

Many experts say you must have a least one year of salary saved up before even considering going off on your own. If you have significant financial obligations, dependents, or responsibilities you can not give up, you better make sure you can meet those commitments in the absence of steady income.

5) Do I interact well with others?

An entrepreneur is someone who can find answers to difficult answers. To find those answers you must be able to interact well with others, convince them to help you, and if you are good, make them want to help you. This is also crucial for building your team, attracting investors, and most importantly acquiring and retaining customers.

6) Can I trust others?

An entrepreneur must wear many hats, but you can not do everything. Those who try, typically fail. Those who are able to find the right people and delegate task have a much better chance to succeed. To be successful you must not only delegate but also inspire. This often means letting go of the reins, trusting in others, and making sure everyone’s mission and interests are aligned.

7) Am I confident in my abilities?

There is a fine line between confidence and cockiness; and, optimism and stupidity. You will experience ups and downs, successes and failures. To succeed, however, you must be resilient and, in general, positive. You can learn many things on the fly, a key trait of most successful business people. But you must also have a core skill set that you can use as a base. Experience in the industry you enter, is not a must, but it is a huge positive. The most important aspect, however, is trusting in your abilities, knowing when to ask for help, and believing that you can actually do it.

There are tons of online resources that can help you make this very important decision. However, two of my favorite reads include Founders At Work: Stories of Startup’s Early Days - a compilation of interviews from successful entrepreneurs in the tech and Web2.0 world (a must-read for any internetrepreneur) and Change the Way You See Everything: Through Asset-Based Thinking - one of my favorite inspirational books.