[Year 12 IT Apps] Emails as a legal document

Wed Aug 18 18:28:29 EST 2010

Dear colleagues

>From a Freedom of Information perspective, government emails are treated in exactly the same as any other document. Sometimes phone calls or personal visits are effective ways of expressing certain opinions.

Regards
Paula C 

________________________________

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Roland Gesthuizen
Sent: Wed 18/08/2010 4:06 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Emails as a legal document

Here is something to reflect upon.  

I was asked a while ago to send post an agency an employee reference whilst holidaying out bush, so I did. Typed it up with Google Apps. Then they wanted a school logo, so I added one in and sent the updated google doc PDF version. (yes, I take my laptop on holidays .. it needs a break as much as I do) 

Then they wanted my signature .. hmm, I had a brief thought to scribble something with my mouse and add that too. I wasn't anywhere near a fax but had free wireless access and somebody eventually dug up a printer. I had a brainstorm, how about if I just photographed the signed reference. When I was holding it up in the sunlight, my wife remarked as she tried to carefully frame the camera that if this was a question of identity would it be better that if she took a further step away, then I would have a photograph holding the reference .. what better proof did they need. I then thought that perhaps a video of me signing the doc would be better still.

When I enquired, common sense finally prevailed and the agency was satisfied about my identify. I suspect that the ongoing technical discussion about options, document versions etc did more to confirm that I was real than all the pixelated signatures that they had no hope of verifying.

So how do we verity a digital identity? I know with my bank I need to collect letters, bills, birth certificates. Would the digital equivalent be to show sample screenshots from my twitter, facebook, linkedin, delicious accounts?

Regards Roland Gesthuizen (The Oz one .. not my unicycling Dutch twin)

On 18 August 2010 15:33, ken price <kenjprice at gmail.com> wrote:

	                                                               Disclaimer - this is comment, not a legal opinion!

	The "status of email vs traditional letter" issue is always a great topic for students to discuss. Eventually the discussion converges on how anyone (at any time in history) can prove or authenticate their identity. You'd think this would be much easier now than in the days when laws were first formed. Maybe.

	Depending on what we mean by "an email" it may have a lot or no credibility. If we are just talking about a printed artefact - well, that could be generated by anyone or anything, and might not even have originated from an email system. If we are talking about "an email" as a digital product and associated timestamped mail server logs from several mail systems, including sender and recipient, correlated with logon information from corporate servers, things start to take on a bit more credibility (though as Adrian points out there are still many ways in which this can be produced fraudulently) 

	However we need to compare this to the "signed letter". This relies on the notion that the signature is somehow unique and validates the content in the letter. This is clearly a big assumption in this century - for example it would take very little time to concoct a letter conferring you with a knighthood and attach this signature http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elizabeth_II_Signature.svg. Traditional letters carry few or none of the multiple points of verification that a complete collection of email data can contain.

	There is a bit of a discussion about conditions of admissibility, rules of evidence and what constitutes a record of information  in http://www.naa.gov.au/images/records%20in%20evidence%20in%20word%20format%20for%20website%5B1%5D_tcm2-7936.pdf and you will see that it can apply to an email. In effect, email as a technology appears to have no special status over other formats of communication.

	The short answer is that there is probably no short answer! 

	As with most legal questions, legal advice should be sought, but lawyers seem to like to deal with specifics rather than generalisations so you may not get a clean answer. A lot of useful class discussion could come out of it though.

	kp 

	On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 2:01 PM, ATKINSON-BUCK, Damien <Damien.ATKINSON-BUCK at ivanhoe.com.au> wrote:

		Hi folks,

		            I've been asked to have a look at a friend's email policy - the preamble into it got me a little flustered and I'm just trying to work out the legitimacy of the statement "Email carries the same legal status as a signed letter or memo." I've had a look in the telecommunications act and the postal act but cannot find it. I'm wondering if anyone out there knows if this statement is pure smoke or not.

		Thanks

		Damien

Damien Atkinson-Buck
Member of Academic Staff (Secondary)

p:

+61 3 9490 3848

f:

+61 3 9490 3490

e:

damien.atkinson-buck at ivanhoe.com.au <mailto:damien.atkinson-buck at ivanhoe.com.au> 

w:

http://myivanhoe.net <http://myivanhoe.net/> 

The Ridgeway Campus
PO Box 91 The Ridgeway
Ivanhoe Victoria
3079 Australia

<http://myivanhoe.net/> 

<http://myivanhoe.net/> 

	Dr Ken Price MACS ACCE Professional Associate.
	President, TASITE

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-- 
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au <http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au/> 

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