E/B/42. Are we being responsible enough and should we be doing more to protect our personal information when using e-mail?

In February 2000, Professor Simon Rogerson of De Montfort University, Leicester, U.K., wrote a paper discussing ‘Email Ethics (Rogerson 2000) for the ETHIcol Journal Series. Since Professor Rogersons article five years ago, many new issues have cropped up, as the digital revolution moves forward with momentum. This article expands on the newer problems involving email ethics, specifically the area of email usage and how it affects our ability to protect our personal information. These problems include some that are self-inflicted, i.e. we voluntarily give away our own bank details online in response to Phishing emails; and some are more difficult to avoid, i.e. hacking – which involves others finding ways to access information from our computers. There are many new problems and some of the new and most infamous are discussed in detail. As well as discussing these problems, this article also expands on Rogersons article by looking at what we as e-mail users ourselves and as I.T. professionals and educators, can do to better our personal information in connection with email use.