Email Disclaimers - Are you Protected?
12 Jun 2018
Why this sudden surge in email disclaimer demand?
Because compliance is big news. And nothing says compliance like an on-brand email legal disclaimer. GDPR (the General Data Protection Regulation) and recent high-profile data misuse scandals have put compliance centre-stage and the world has woken up to the fact that brand protection is just as important as brand promotion.
And when you think that your employees are each sending up to 1,000 emails a month there’s plenty of opportunity for brand damage, from the accidental and unauthorised through to the mischievous and (criminally) malicious.
You (literally) can’t afford this damage. You need some proactive protection. From contracts and confidentiality to codes of conduct and copyright, the best email disclaimers cut through the compliance confusion.
So while it might be difficult to get excited about disclaimers for email (and if you do get excited by them you are going to love our website) it’s a good time to review yours with our 10-point email disclaimer checklist.
1.Does your business need one?
Wherever you are in the world, check the legal email disclaimer requirements. At the very least, it’s likely your business email is required to show your company name, registration number and place of registration.
2. Is it enforceable?
Do you really want to risk it? Whilst we can’t promise that your email disclaimer would be a watertight defence in court, it’s safe to say that it would help your case and is certainly enough to dissuade any litigation-minded recipient from any action.
3. Don’t over complicate or let it dominate
Keep your email disclaimer simple whilst keeping your business covered. And keep it easy to understand too – go easy on the legalese!
4. Need to keep it confidential?
If your email is for a certain recipient’s eyes only it makes sense to include a confidentiality statement. And if your email is sent to the wrong person by mistake, this statement should tell them to contact you (the sender), delete the message and not to copy, forward or store it.
5. Are you copyright-covered?
Is it clear that the rights to your email content are yours? Make it crystal clear with a copyright clause.
6. Are you creating contractual confusion?
Could your email content be read as a legally binding contract? An email disclaimer can make clear if it is or isn’t and avoid any costly confusion.
7. Reminder – run a virus check
Even though you’re taking every precaution to ensure there’s no malicious software in your message (especially attachments), your email disclaimer should recommend that the recipient runs their own virus check.
8. Don’t start a chain distraction
Don’t clog up your email chain with a disclaimer on every reply. Make sure your email signature software drops your disclaimer to the bottom of any email chain.
9. Do you need different disclaimers?
Accounts need confidentiality. Legals need codes of conduct. Sales need contracts. Basically, different departments may need different disclaimers. So make sure your email signature software can deliver this while keeping you in central control.
10. Don’t forget Internal emails
Whilst everyone in your business is on the same side (in theory!) make sure you’ve got disclaimers on all internal email too and an email policy to back them up, eliminating any inappropriate and offensive inter-staff email.
So, what makes a Rocketseed disclaimer different?
Well, with Rocketseed it’s personal. As well as helping you solve all the issues covered above, Rocketseed lets you automatically insert the email addresses of the sender and recipient into every disclaimer, as well as timestamping them as proof of sending and allowing you to make any company-wide disclaimer changes centrally and instantly. In other words, we add a whole extra level of cover, confidence and control.
And Rocketseed disclaimers display perfectly on all email platforms, so whether you require email disclaimer Office 365 or email disclaimer GSuite, Rocketseed is right for you.
Watch how a Rocketseed email disclaimer works in our new video here.
We can help review your existing email disclaimer, advise on a new one and put everything in place to ensure your disclaimer is delivered on every employee email and displays perfectly on every device.
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