Certified Email

DavidNTX

Many years ago I realized a need to one day be able to certify an email. A method of being able to show in a court of law (if needed) that an email was actually sent from 1 party, to another party, the date and time as well as the text in the message. By having this email stored on a disinterested 3rd parties computer in a location you have no idea where it is at, it helps to prove the email was delivered as said.

In todays world, especially the construction industry, we need to backup everything we do. Everything has to be in writing and email is or has become the method of communication mostly used. It makes a perfect record of communication between 2 parties. In most cases this works fine. Just like it used to be sending a letter, in most cases, was all that was needed. In special circumstances we would send a certified letter for proof. This is needed for email also.

If you are sending an email and would like to have a backup on a distant computer, in the cc field of an email, send it to email.certification@gmail.com. Usually within just a couple of minutes of sending your email you will receive an email certification notice in your email informing you of the sender, recipient, date, time, subject and message of the email. These certificates could prove valuable if the situation ever wound up in court. You can instruct that an email certificate also be sent to the recipient by adding 3 dots "..." to the end of the subject line. The recipient then receives the same email certification notice as you plus a copy of the actual email, date and time stamped, remains on the gmail server.

If you want to find out more about this handy tool just send an email to email.certification@gmail.com and use only the word "information" in the subject line. This will instruct an information sheet on this service to be emailed back to you within just a minute or so. This is a free service and I'm not here just plugging it. Well, maybe plugging it because it is useful.

Even with trouble in the office with co-workers. It is best to try and keep communications between workers sent via email. Daily logs of jobsites can be emailed and certified. Sometimes just seeing the email address in the cc line is enough to change hearts.

Chris Johnson

That's a cool service, wish I had of read this thread 15 mins ago before sending out my last e-mail...

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Chris

KentWhitten

I have been using email at the job I now presently work at to cover my butt. Owner came up to me yesterday and said he's getting tired of hearing these problems coming from my department. I said I have email to back it up that I took care of it and someone else did the bad deed. He wanted to see it and I sent it over and now, the problem is off my shoulders and I look better because of it.

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If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place ~Lao Tzu

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DavidNTX

It always looks better for the person that has the forethought to cover themselves. email.certification@gmail.com just adds an extra punch to your emails.

GregS

Some companies will freak out if you send internal company information to a 3rd party as this.

You don't know what is on the other side of email.confirmation@gmail.com and how it will be used.

ProWallGuy

David, is this a side business of yours?

Do you charge for this service?

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

DavidNTX

It is a free service.

I don't know if I would actually call it a business. It is my email account and I have an autoreply setup on it to send out the notices and information. It requires no input from me. I don't do anything with the emails, they just sit there on gmails server. I have debated whether or not to immediately delete them but the actual emails are nice to have if ever needed.

Internal company information should never go beyond your firewall. As with anything, don't ever put information anywhere online that you don't want anyone else to know about. Most people would be surprised to know how many computers an email message passes through regardless of who you send it to and they all have logs.

ProWallGuy

Very interesting concept. But, unless you've had a lawyer sign off on the idea, I'm not really sure it would hold up in court. Still a great idea though.

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

DavidNTX

It sure helps in creating and backing up a paper trail that may be needed at a future date. It attaches it to a timeline that is independent of either party involved. Noone ever said this is a fool proof method to prevent you from ever getting exploited. It is a small piece of an overall plan.

Jobsite photographs are needed. A logbook helps. Company policies and procedures as well as a good safety program are just a few of the things needed to help protect you and your business. There is no one thing that will guarantee you anything but each piece helps.

ProWallGuy

Wouldn't it be the same if I opened up my 'sent' folder, and printed out the sent email? It shows to, from, and the time sent already. Not knocking your idea, but wouldn't this show the same thing?

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

DavidNTX

It is easy to manipulate your own computer to use wrong dates or to change the wording in emails. Having a copy on a third parties computer to backup the fact that your email was actually sent at the date you claim and that the wording has not changed is what this does.

GreenW00D

what it is not easy to do is change the header info routing info. Personally I would never send email to an unknown third party. If it really important you can pay for these services through a financially backed company. There was a law passed last that states that companies must archive all internal email for a certain period of time. There is a company called watchdog that has equpment to do this. There are also several online services available that act as email proxy's.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2692400

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I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
Bill Cosby (1937 - )

DavidNTX

That article is talking about companies involved in federal litigation so it can be used in discovery. I have this email account for myself and just put it here in case anyone else wanted to use it. It has worked well for me but it hasn't been tested by a court either.

GregS

Sure it is.. how do you think spam works?


A number of years ago I wrote a small SMTP daemon in Perl for a project I was doing. It was quite easy to do.

You can use telnet as a mail client if you really wanted to.

Patrick

Ive been doing that for years. You simply CC your own e-mail address. That way you get a copy of the e-mail sent to you and it shows the date and time that you sent it and who you sent it to. Or if you want to make it more complicated set up a second e-mail address that all your e-mails with get CC's to

PressurePros

No way does any of my email go through a third party unless they are listed on the NYSE and have disclosure and usage contracts.

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Ken Fenner
Pressure Washing PA
Roof Cleaning Services PA

GregS

Your email, passes unencrypted through many systems around the internet. That's how the internet works. Network, talking to network, talking to network.

If you were really paranoid about the content of emails and wanted to make absolutely sure that the only person who viewed it was the intended recipient, use encryption.

DavidNTX

If you are sending a demand email or confirming a color selection or something like that, I seriously doubt that anyone but you gives a rat's ass about the content of that letter. It sure isn't some form of proprietary secretive information in most cases. If it is then standard email over the internet is the wrong place to be sending that data anyway.

Ken512

I don't know where this information came from, but this appears to be a scam. Someone has opened up an account on gmail using this address to harvest email addresses. Nowhere on googles website do you see this listed as a real service, I advise everyone not to send anything to this address.

GregS

Just had to join and point that out eh?