Over the past few weeks, confidentiality notices have been included at the bottom of every email received from professors, faculty, offices, and clubs at the university. Only emails that are filed under [email protected] have the confidentiality notice applied through the server. No student emails ([email protected]) have had the confidentiality notice applied, although it will still appear on emails that are exchanged between students and faculty.

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) said they understand the importance of keeping emails secure and safeguarding any confidential information. As a result, certain steps have been made to reinforce the ability to monitor and detect suspicious activity.

One of these steps is an improvement to their spam filter. Recently, the filter has been programmed to use a pattern matching and scoring system that will recognize any familiar emails that may seem suspicious. Moreover, the OIT constantly monitors their mail server and reports any dubious activity from their own account, which they then block at the server.

So, why all of the sudden have these notices started to appear?

The reasoning behind these confidentiality notices is to safeguard the privacy of content sent via email, according to OIT. They also said that this has become a common practice among businesses and other universities around the country. It will act as an important tool that will hopefully dissuade any unintended recipients from publishing sensitive information about a student or the university. Furthermore, it will encourage any unintended recipient(s) to alert the sender and delete any messages not intended for their consumption.

All in all, the notice is part of a strategic plan implemented by OIT as part of its continuous charge to safeguard email privacy and security.

“This notice will help reinforce the confidential nature of email communications that are shared on campus and encourage users to ensure that all email communications are treated appropriately and according to our confidentiality policy,” said Lyn Chamberlin, vice president of marketing and communications.

OIT said it understands that including a confidentiality notice email does not constitute a binding contract between the email sender and any recipients. Still, they believe that including the notice is important in discouraging any unintended recipients from sharing privileged and or confidential information.