I and many others have been following the so-called “Climate-gate” story out of the U.K. As has been well-described now, hackers broke into servers and released emails between respected climate change scientists which were, at the very least, embarrassing. This incident may have very far reaching consequences for policy, but is also a reminder of how potentially damaging electronic mail can be (at a professional and personal level).
I’ve written about this matter before, but it’s useful to remind readers of the following heuristic: if you’re not comfortable seeing your words as a headline in tomorrow’s New York Times, then it’s better not to hit that send button.
And as a corollary, always check to see who’s actually on the cc line.
Jim
Discoverers and Discoveries 