Of all the ineffectual e-mail disclaimers I see, one I received earlier this week takes the prize for self-defeating impotence. A public relations flak wrote me trying to get publicity for a security conference. His was the standard spiel: the whos who would be there, the whats that would be learned, the wheres and whens and whys.. . .
Of all the ineffectual e-mail disclaimers I see, one I received earlier this week takes the prize for self-defeating impotence. A public relations flak wrote me trying to get publicity for a security conference. His was the standard spiel: the whos who would be there, the whats that would be learned, the wheres and whens and whys. But at the bottom of the message, I found this disclaimer:

CONFIDENTIALITY: The information contained in this E-mail message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the designated recipient(s) named above. This message is intended to be a confidential communication and may involve information or material, which is protected under state or federal privacy laws.

The disclaimer droned on a while longer in deep legalese and horrid grammar--nothing that that e-mail users haven't learned to ignore long ago. But here's the ludicrous part: The information was, in fact, intended to be spread far and wide, yet the disclaimer supposedly forbade me from doing that.

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