Don’t regret sending an email
It’s a good idea to count to 10 and think hard before pressing send on an angry email rant.
By now it should be abundantly clear that anything written in email could very well end up read by anyone with an internet connection.
It’s the lesson taught again and again by the countless embarrassed politicians, celebrities and military leaders who didn’t count to 10 before hitting send and mistakenly calculated that their server was secure.
Yet every so often there’s another revelation of private thoughts exposed to an unflattering spotlight with consequences ranging from an uneasy awkwardness to prison time.
And now into the ignominious pantheon of email blunders comes the Democratic National Committee. Thousands of emails, leaked by an apparent hacker, appeared to show the committee was working to help Hillary Clinton win the Democratic primary over Bernie Sanders instead of remaining neutral.
The incident is the latest in a long line of indecent exposures. Hackers have infiltrated even supposed secure servers to unearth trade secrets, military plans and illicit affairs.
A hack of Sony Pictures entertainment revealed pay disparities and a producer calling actress Angelina Jolie a ‘‘minimally talented spoiled brat’’.
Investigators found that a Navy officer charged in a contracting scandal would send emails asking defence contractor executives for prostitutes, referring to them as ‘‘bodyguards’’ or ‘‘cheesecake’’ or even just as ‘‘food’’, according to court records.
Companies have gone to some lengths to safeguard their servers. And surveys show that people have grown suspicious about the sanctity of their private missives and personal information.
‘‘People have become more anxious over time. There’s this palpable sense when you do surveys or focus groups that people feel they’ve lost control of their information,’’ said Lee Rainie, the director of Pew Research’s Internet and American Life Project.
The basic step companies could take to keep their emails from hackers’ prying eyes is encryption – but it’s not always an easy sell.
‘‘Businesses kind of know they should be encrypting emails and sometimes they take steps towards that. But it can become an inconvenience, especially when you add mobile devices into the mix,’’ said Richard Bejtlich, chief security strategist at cybersecurity firm FireEye. ‘‘Some businesses decide it’s just not worth it.’’
Daniel Hill, involved with crisis communications with business and celebrity clients, said he now warns that even voicemails that are transcribed and sent by email ‘‘now becomes admissible’’ in court.
‘‘Emailing is just a dangerous thing,’’ he said, even if you’re copied in on an email and never participate in the conversation.
Hill said he counsels clients to spend more time meeting people in person. ‘‘We’re big on personal contact,’’ he said.
But even though they know the potential perils, people keep pressing send on emails in haste. Why? One reason is often anger and the instant gratification of acting on it in a digital medium that doesn’t always allow for sober thought and reflection, said Brad Bushman, a communications and psychology professor at Ohio State University.
‘‘Angry people behave very impulsively,’’ he explained.
‘‘Anger sort of narrows your attention span and makes you focus on the here and now – plus it feels good.
‘‘That’s another problem about venting. People love to do it.’’ Another reason is the basic need for validation and the innate human desire to complain. ‘‘When someone is supportive of our feelings, it’s validating and can help you move on,’’ said Imran Riaz, a psychologist who specialises in impulse control.
And then there’s good, old fashioned denial: ‘‘Even though you’re aware of the fact that these things can get out, sometimes you ignore the fact that it could happen to you,’’ said Ryan Martin, chairman of the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin.
All of those factors can team up and crescendo into a big ball of regret. And everyone has a tale of their own.
‘‘Let me tell you a story,’’ Lee Dougherty said.
He’s a lawyer, who specialises in government contracts, and when he’s in the middle of a dispute, he often filed a Freedom of Information Act request for emails because he knows that the mix of anger, the need to complain and the dark powers of denial can lead to victory in the courtroom.
‘‘They can’t resist,’’ he said, which means he ‘‘may very well get the smoking gun’’.
But this story isn’t about a case. It’s about a former colleague. A lawyer, who should have known better.
Their boss was a bit of a control freak, who obsessively read everyone’s work emails.
Clients would write Dougherty without copying the boss and still the boss would respond, ‘‘Lee, did you follow up with this person?’’
And yet his colleague still went ahead and insulted the boss in an email, Dougherty said, calling him the ‘‘Eye of Souran,’’ the all-seeing eye from the Lord of the Rings.
‘‘So here you have an intelligent lawyer’’ who knows her communications are being monitored, Dougherty said.
‘‘And yet she’s still talking about him.’’ Washington Post