Death By Email Blog

Hundreds of Social Security Numbers Emailed

Hundreds of social security numbers were accidentally emailed by a manager at Office Team, a Manchester, N.H., temporary employment agency, according to WCVB-TV (Channel 5 in Boston).  The station reported, "When a company manager sent out an e-mail about job opportunities, she instead sent out the Social Security numbers."

"She hit a button and it sent out a broadcast e-mail, so it certainly was not intentional on her part," company spokesperson Reesa Staten said, in the TV report.

The case will surely raise identity theft concerns.  New Hampshire does have a law requiring notification of those involved in identity theft leaks.  The company claims to have installed content monitoring software (not ours, unfortunately).

Was Starwood's CEO Caught By Email, Too?

After Harry Stonecipher, the Boeing CEO in 2005, departed due to emails that revealed a relationship with a female Boeing executive, one would think that all CEO;s would have been put on notice.  Don't write down inappropriate activity.  It is possible -- although not a sure thing -- that it happened again.

Last month, the resignation of Starwood Hotel's CEO, Steven Heyer, was widely reported in the business media.  The Associated Press reported from a news release, "differences in opinion regarding Mr. Heyer's management style led the board 'to lose confidence in his leadership.'” Forbes said, Heyer's "aggressive approach and his larger-than-life persona (were) ... rumored to turn board members against him."

However, the Wall Street Journal, intrigued by Heyer's decision to resign without most of his $35 million severance package, investigated further.  Their conclusion is that he was caught by email.

The abrupt departure of Steven J. Heyer from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. followed a confrontation with the company's board ignited by an anonymous letter accusing him of personal misconduct, according to people familiar with the situation.  ...

After investigating claims made in the anonymous letter, sent to directors about two months ago, the board pressed Mr. Heyer to explain the large number of emails and text messages to and from female employees on a variety of topics outside normal working hours. They also questioned him about his hiring and promotion practices. ...

Email Bankruptcy

I missed the blog entry that venture capitalist Fred Wilson posted last month.  The entry entitled Declaring Bankruptcy said:

Declaring Bankruptcy

I am so far behind on email that I am declaring bankruptcy.

If you've sent me an email (and you aren't my wife, partner, or colleague), you might want to send it again.

I am starting over.

More Investigations Related to Inappropriate Email

One Port of Seattle police officer has been fired and another "appears to be on the way out" in a scandal now known as "E-Gate." according to KING television news.  But, the extent of the inappropriate material sent by email seems much wider than two individuals, if the news reports are correct.

"The KING 5 Investigators analyzed dozens of email threads and found 43 officers, nearly half the force, were involved in sending or sending inappropriate material, including 12 sergeants. Not one person reported it in a two year period. 10 people, the worst offenders, received letters of reprimand. Back in January, then Deputy Chief Gale Evans said it wouldn't happen again." 

Email Address Registry for Sex Offenders

"The Connecticut House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation on Thursday that will require convicted sex offenders to register their "electronic mail address, instant message address, or other similar Internet communication identifier" with the state's Commissioner of Public Safety. The penalties for failing to register an e-mail address would be identical to the failure to register a residential address, and include a possible jail sentence of up to five years," reported Top Tech News.  Virginia, Arizona, and Kentucky already have adopted similar rules.

Inbox Event next week

Just got off the phone with Maureen Caplan Grey, who blogs about messaging and community at http://blogs.zdnet.com/ecommunity/.

She is also chair of the Inbox event, which starts next week in San Jose.  (The Inbox event has nothing to do with my company, InBoxer.  We just share the first five letters.)  It looks like she has lined up a great set of speakers.  I should be an exciting show.

New Zealand teachers censured for inappropriate emails

A series of inappropriate email messages sent independently by different teachers have led to actions by Teachers Council's disciplinary tribunal, according to tomorrow's Dominion Post:

• A male teacher send texts to two girls, aged 12 and 13 respectively, in 2004, including one that said, "Hey ... do you ever text someone you don't know?"  The same teacher, who believed that his wife was having an affair, left a copy of an email on his desk that reportedly included phrase: "Thought about u and me waking up together and the kids were still asleep, well rather I was awake and soon made u awake and I slowly kissed down your body until you were very receptive ..."  Students removed the email and read it.  The disciplinary board decided that the teacher was under stress and that the offenses were mild.  As a result, he was censured, but allowed to continue teaching.
• Another male teacher, who had been teaching for 17 years, lost his teaching license after sending late-night text messages about his personal problems to 12-year-olds.
• An experienced 42-year-old teacher resigned after several intimate e-mails from June 2005 with a 17-year-old girl pupil who had emotional problems. They contained sexual innuendo and sexual jokes. He was also censured for serious misconduct. 

Email, Open Meetings, and School Boards

The Los Altos (CA) school board is the latest to be hit with questions about the use of email and their state Open Meeting law.  The Brown Act, which covers open meetings for all California Legislative bodies, guarantees the public's right to attend and participate in public meetings.  It includes notification provisions for meetings and more.

The Palo Alto Daily News today gives a detailed listing of the related emails and a report about how the Brown Act might be interpreted for the Los Altos schools.  Here are some excerpts:

• All five board members were copied on the electronic exchanges when the reply-all button was hit, creating a "virtual" and illegal meeting, parent Matt Raschke said.
• Digital correspondence including the entire board "comes very close to a Brown Act violation if it doesn't cross the line," said Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition.  E-mails seeking to sway decisions or influence the board prior to a meeting constitute a Brown Act violation, while information simply being distributed to members does not, Scheer said.
• "Broadcasting e-mail is like speaking at a meeting." Board Member David Luskin said. "The only Brown Act violation is if there was a discussion."

Clearly, there is no answer in Los Altos to the question about how emails relate to the Brown Act.  But, indications in other states are that emails that involve at least a quorum of Board members does constitute a meeting.

Pornographic Email Sent Across the NFL

Does the NFL think it is exempt from hostile work environment regulations?  Just because many of those in the front office are lifelong football players, do they think that in today's age, inappropriate behavior is OK?

Pittsburgh Steelers Chairman Dan Rooney is only "considering some sort of discipline" for pornographic email sent and forwarded by people who should know better.  Last week, Steelers line coach Larry Zierlein inadvertently forwarded an e-mail he received from Doug Whaley, the Steelers' pro personnel coordinator, to multiple high-level team employees and their secretaries throughout the NFL, including commissioner Roger Goodell (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

"I saw the e-mail.  It was brutal," said a source in ProFootballTalk.   

Great Article in New York Magazine

I truly identified with the people quoted in "Going Postal" from the latest issue of the New York Magazine.  I am an email addict with a laptop and a world-band GSM Treo that is capable of reading from multiple email accounts.  It is hard for me to go a day without checking the email.  (Christmas Day is very strange because the email volume drops so much.)  So, when I read the article, I started to relate.  Here are a few of the interesting comments:

• "The computer is now the ultimate Skinner box. You keep coming back for the reward," argues Lee Sproull, a professor of business at New York University. ... There is considerable gratification that comes from forever being needed, wanted -- popular, even. "It's sort of the way you used to feel about mail arriving from the postman," explains Sarah Crichton, the publisher of Little, Brown. "Possibly, just possibly, there would be something wonderful in one of those envelopes that would delight you, make your heart race a little faster. The difference with e-mail is that it keeps arriving all day long."
  
  
• America Online recently commissioned a study of Internet use and found that 47 percent of users now take their laptops on vacation, and 26 percent check their e-mail. "I've played the game of not taking my laptop on vacation," explains Barry Schuler, president of AOL Interactive Services. "What happens is that you sit there on the beach, gazing out into the ocean, but you can't relax because you're thinking about how many e-mails are accumulating in your in-box. I finally decided that I'm willing to take a couple of hours each day on vacation discreetly off in a corner doing my e-mail. It's worth feeling like a jerk in order to know that I'm on top of everything and I'm not going to return to 1,000 unanswered e-mails."
  
  
• "When you log on, you feel like you're in touch with everything that's going on in the world," says Judith Regan, publisher of Regan Books. "But what you really are is out of touch -- literally. There is no touching anymore. ... Here I am, sitting at home in front of my computer answering e-mail (on a Sunday) at ten in the morning when I should be in bed with a handsome guy making love."
  
  
• "E-mail may be the rudest form of communication yet invented," says Nathan Myhrvold, until recently the chief technology officer at Microsoft. E-mail eliminates tone of voice, body language, and the sort of social cues and contexts that make it possible to distinguish between different messages intended by the same words. In technological terms, e-mail has a limited emotional bandwidth.

New York Magazine always seems to have a great way of getting to the ultimate point. I highly recommend the article. You can even have New York Magazine email the article to you. Wouldn't that be something to look forward to in one of those little envelopes?