Annoying email disclaimers
Posted by Rob on 24th Nov 2009 in The Internet
You’ve most likely seen them, especially in emails from large and corporate type companies. They all follow the same sort of pattern:
The information contained in and accompanying this communication has been provided via email at your request and may be confidential, subject to legal privilege, or otherwise protected from disclosure, and is intended solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient(s) of this communication, please delete and destroy all copies in your possession, notify…blah blah blah…
Of course, as an arse covering exercise, these legal disclaimers are probably a good thing for some - who doesn’t want a “Get Out of Jail Free” card?
Email disclaimers come in various lengths, 200 words is not uncommon, and I’ve even many 500 word plus examples included with a one word reply! So why are you forcing me to download all your legal jargon with every email you send me?
The problem
All that extra text/data takes up valuable disk space somewhere, and for many of us that’s our own computers disk. Although 1kb’s worth of email disclaimer is a grain of sand in todays world of 1 terabyte disk drives, as we all know, most of our inbox’s are permanently growing in size - even with regular spring cleaning, and over time all those 1kb’s will grow into megabytes and gigabytes.
Plus the fact that hardly anyone actually reads them.
As an example, I had a lengthy email conversation with a corporate company who used a 500+ word disclaimer that appeared every time their representative replied. The email soon reached 200kb along with our normal conversation text, and when we were done it was approaching 250kb. Considering half of that was the companies disclaimer being repeated over and over again you get my point - a total waste of resources.
The solution
For the most part a company that uses such disclaimers will have a web site. The answer is simple, just add a link in the email pointing to a web page containing your email legalese - job done, and a better email experience for everyone.
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