e-mail recovery 1

[Bodgit]

I recently resigned from my job and before leaving I deleted all my e-mail although none of it was illegal or damning I did want my bosses to view it (it contained sales prospects that had not been followed up). I have been told that my company is able to recover my deleted mail fromn the server is this possible> the e-mail is lotus notes v4.5. I assume because it is comnpany e-mail they are entitled to read it??

 

[SemperFiDownUnda]

Yes they can recover it.
It probably gets backed up so even though you deleted it they could still restore it from backup.

Thing is will they. Can they legally? Probably, even though many will argue privacy laws they can justify it pretty easily and you should know what the company use policy of email was.

I doubt your boss will have IT restore email so he can waste time browsing through thousands of your emails. What you would find more likely is a customer that you handled saying "I sent John an email on the 21st of August about this issue...." and your old boss having your email restored around that point in time to see the exchange of emails.

Don't worry about it. You are gone....you said nothing wrong was on there.....so a few loose strings aren't going to do anything.

 

[kiddpete]

I suspect deleting email with sales prospects is kind of like deleting programs before you leave. It sounds like you were paid to develop sales prospects, but now you want to take them with you. That's theft.

 

[bi]

kiddpete,

nice said the emails were sales prospects he hadn't followed up on. And he said he deleted them -- he didn't say he had copied them or printed them out. It may be bad time management or procrastination for not following up -- but nice is not a thief.

 

[Spirit]

A good IT policy would clear this up in a jiffy!

We have a term in our that ALL equipment is provided for BUSINESS use only and the user has NO EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY well a wee tad more detailed than that but you get the jist of it.

But from where I sit, he received an email to his COMPANY email address, on his COMPANIES mail server regarding COMPANY business.... they can restore and read anything they like!

 

[rosieb]

Yes, if they want to, they can recreate your email, standard practice.

If it contains sales leads that you had not folllowed up, they have every right to pursue those leads. Personal email is a different matter - legally, and I have no knowledge of US law.

Without appropriate knowleddge of the details, I can't judge. But they should be able to identify where you have not fulfilled your obligations, if that is the case.

In which case you do noy have my sympathy

Opioniated, always; correct, occasionally; so, enlighten me.
Rosie

 

[Bodgit]

I'm not a salesman (I work for a living - project manager and before you say it they work as well) the sales leads were from customers but are not directly connected to my previous companys business but could be utilised by them

 

[Rhombus65]

Just a couple of points.

I would think that the e-mails are backed up somewhere.

As for you takeing the contacts with you. That would probably be decided legaly based on your companies privacy policies and/or any anti-compete clauses you may have signed.

As far as deleting the e-mails. If your company cannot recover them. Shame on your company allowing you to be able to do that.

Just my opinion.

Jim: A+, MCP W2k, Master Electrician

"A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future." -Albert Einstein

 

[bluedragon2]

You said:

<< the sales leads were from customers but are not directly connected to my previous companys business but could be utilised by them >>

If you utilized the old company's e-mail to communicate with these leads, or stored them on the old company's e-mail server, then I would say that you are out of luck. Most company's have e-mail/PC usage policy's. Most company's perform backups. If you didn't want these leads (that did not pertain to the company at the time) comprimised, then don't store them there.



Blue

If I wasn't Blue, I would just be a Dragon...

 

[Kjonnnn]

Deleting probably wont make a difference. I backup ours every night on a different tape. So... you may meticulously delete your emails today, but I've got another 59 days worth of backup tapes that you didnt delete.

And yea they can look thru the emails, but most times.... who cares .. unless you left them some reason to.

 

[paul172]

I don't know the legal requirements in the US, but I work in a hospital in the UK and it is illegal for us to open users email without their expressed permission.

 

[Grenage]

&quot;I don't know the legal requirements in the US, but I work in a hospital in the UK and it is illegal for us to open users email without their expressed permission&quot;

provided the employee has signed a company policy relating to the the issue, yes.

 

[Georgi1chuikov]

In the US there is no such thing as private e-mail use when the account is owned by the company. In the corporate world the only privacy you are allowed is the bathroom and your body (which will include a personal handbag like a purse, pockets, wallet etc). That is about it. So, if your boss wants that report that you have buried on your desk/ in your PC and he reads a personal sensitive file it is just your tough luck. Here you learn never to have anything personaly sensitive at work and NEVER send or receive anything that you would not want completely public. This kind of privacy is reserved for the home. Also, company e-mails are legally admisable in court, therefore, the act of not backing up these e-mails exposes the company to problems if it is exposed to litigation.

 

[SemperFiDownUnda]

The State of California requires any business it deals with, even outside of California, to maintain backups of all electronic communications for a period of a number of years, sorry I forget the number. This was possing a interesting problem with the use of instant messengers last I heard.

EU has very strict privacy laws but then agian I believe they go way overbored. My opinion to much money and effort is going into projecting the fact that Joe Bloggs is cheating on his wife with Mary Jane and uses company resources inappropriately.

 

[kiddpete]

Nice is not a salesman, but he has customer information, regarding sales prospects, which he wants to conceal from his previous employer. In addition, his previous employer can now make use of this information.

The way it is phrased, it sounds like these are customers of the previous employer. It also sounds like Nice either was not supposed to have this information, or he was doing something with it that he doesn't want his previous employer to know about. Something is fishy here.

 

[Bodgit]

nothing fishy, leads were given to me by our supplier but are not our customers but they are thinking of changing their product soon but are too small for my supplier to deal with direct. As i stated in orignal post nothing damning or illegal so stop trying to find something that isn't there.

support@recordingsolutions.co.uk

 

[CajunCenturion]

nice1 - I'm believe you that nothing fishy is going on, but that's just the facts.

Perception, on the other hand, is 90% of reality.

Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein