Confidentiality Notices are Annoying - Some better ways to let people know to keep it on the QT

You've seen them. Maybe you get only a few a day, I seem to get hundreds. Usually they come in the form of a one-sentence email from your attorney and a 300-1,000 word essay / legal briefing on confidentiality at the bottom. Below is a sooper-shorty one for example:

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
The information contained in this e-mail correspondence is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is PRIVILEGED and CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the named recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, duplication, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance upon this correspondence is strictly prohibited. If you received this correspondence in error, please notify the sender by phone, fax, or e-mail and destroy any and all copies of the correspondence. Thank you.

These are really annoying when you read most of your email on a cell phone. I think I've scrolled 10 miles thru these over the last year getting to the bottom of the thread.

Have you noticed they usually come from professionally anal people? Pretty much every attorney, accountants and HR professional I know has 200-1,000 words of fine print at the top, bottom and even embedded in the header. Especially email from those old men who smell like old spice and are always trying to recall one politician or another and love rambling on-and-on-and-on at public forums. They love appending their emails with all kinds of crazy stuff like this.

Here's a couple Nevada-specific idea for a Confidentiality Notice that I'd like to see/use in my email. Short and sweet. Probably just as effective. Liven things up a little:

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
I live in Nevada. We have lots of abandoned mineshafts and ample room for shallow graves. Keep this email to yourself.

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
Just like those photos of you I took in Vegas, what happens in your Inbox stays in your Inbox.

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
Like I trust my .40, I trust you to keep email this to yourself. I have a Basque/Italian family, BTW.

What kind of Confidentiality Notices would you like to fly?

  Technorati : confidentiality, disclaimer, email, humor, legal, nevada, notice

Comments

[Chris Gandolfo]

A play on your Italian one. With a name that ends in a vowel, how can I resist.

Confidentiality Notice:
Hey, don't make me call cousin Vinny and Guido ta bust yer knee caps. Got it. Keep this email between us or you'll be sleepin' with tha fishes.