If you want to send short messages today, the SMS is obsolete for longer and important news in many areas as well the letter. The right way of sending such messages would be using an email account. In addition to the speed, the possibilities of digital finishing convince. But beware, in addition to these basic benefits, three steps must be taken to protect the security of your emails. If you are using any email, let it be Road Runner Web Mail, Gmail, Outlook, Thunderbird or other, then you can follow the forthcoming steps to secure it.
Why do you need to protect your email?
Basically, we should all develop a special awareness of the protection of our email communication – especially if we send important documents, personal data or private photos by email.
However, especially professional groups that are subject to special secrecy obligations must fulfill higher security requirements for the protection of your emails.
Step 1: Email Encryption
The ability to securely protect emails from inadvertent third parties by encryption is not new. In terms of transmission, it is the central starting point for the security and protection of emails. There are now a variety of useful instructions to email with the popular email programs (such as Apple Mail, RR Email, Outlook or Thunderbird) Encryption. Once set up, you no longer have to worry about securely transferring your emails. However, be careful: the subject of the email and the information about the receiver and the sender are still visible. They only encrypt the content.
Step 2: Send your email to the right recipient
Everyone should know the situation: After the email has been written, now the desired recipient should be selected. Most email clients provide autocomplete for this. After you type a few letters, email IDs of your contacts begin to appear in the drop-down list. The danger of “clicking” at this point is high; especially if they are different people with the same first or last name. Avoid this by additionally showing the associated email address and the organization of your contacts.
What to do if an email has been sent to the wrong recipient?
If an email despite careful consideration of these notes to the wrong address, pays off at this point the use of email encryption, because the mis-addresser cannot decrypt the content of the mail, but only the subject and the intention to communicate. However, even this can be a breach of secrecy, if this results in conclusions about the person concerned. Legally, it should be noted that it is a reportable violation of data protection law if sensitive data about a person fall into the wrong hands and thus threaten serious harm to their rights or interests worthy of protection.
Step 3: Carefully distinguish the fields “CC” and “BCC”
Unfortunately, in everyday practice, the email functions “CC” and “BCC” are not properly separated from each other and used incorrectly from a data protection point of view.
CC stands for “carbon copy” and means that each recipient can see the email addresses of all other recipients and use them for their own purposes.
BCC stands for “blind carbon copy” and is identical in function to CC, but no email addresses are shown to the recipient other than their own.
Whenever you write to various email recipients who have not consented to the public use of your addresses (which will be the rule), it would be a clear violation of the Federal Data Protection Act, if you combine these addresses via the function “CC” write and thus distribute the email addresses without the consent of the respective person.
Therefore, you should use these two functions appropriately and respect the privacy of your contacts by using the “BCC” function in case of doubt and by hiding your external email address.
Conclusion:
Encrypt your emails.
Adjust the Address Book accordingly to reduce the risk of selecting an incorrect recipient automatically and check it carefully before sending.
Distinguish the functions “CC” and “BCC” consciously – decide in case of doubt for “BCC” and thus protect the privacy of your contacts. Contact Roadrunner email customer service for more help.