Survey shows 45% of business users are unaware of management access rights to business email, 60% have documents that could cause embarrassment. Mail Robot X helps users navigate email privacy issues while sharing information.

According to research carried out by email experts JPY, a large proportion of business email users are ill informed about email privacy. As many as 45 percent of users are ignorant of managers' rights to access their email, while 60 percent have email on the business system they would be uncomfortable with other people reading.

British email expert Dr John Yardley is taking aim at the dysfunctional email practices of businesses. Compliance usually means restrictive measures that limit the functionality of email systems. Dr Yardley has been working on an email management system that promotes collaboration, while keeping in line with compliance issues.

The common view of email is that it is a personal and private form of communication, even at work. Research shows that 45 percent of people are unaware that business email is not private. Almost half of that number were adamant that the company had no right to access their email.

The truth is, businesses are responsible for any email on the business email system. This means they not only are required to have access to all business email, they are legally responsible for anything sent through it.

Most business email users appear to forget that business email isn't private. Around 60 percent of business email users would have concerns about other colleagues having access to their email, and 45 percent were unaware that their boss has the legal right to see their business email communications.

Another finding of the survey showed that email is very commonly used for collaboration. Over 40 percent of people surveyed said they used email to collaborate share documents with colleagues. This was more than any other form of collaboration, either using custom databases, project management software, Wiki's or CRM solutions.

The most common way to share information and documents is by email, either by cc-ing, forwarding or using shared email addresses. While these methods are convenient, they risk important knowledge being locked into individuals email accounts.

The research was carried out by JPY, a company seeking to legitimise and streamline email collaboration, while preserving privacy of personal emails. It's product, Mail Robot X provides transparent tools for sharing knowledge in business email, while ignoring personal messages.

JPY email expert Dr John Yardley said, "So much valuable information gets locked into individuals email accounts, and it could be so much more useful if it were shared. Privacy concerns about sharing that information are ill informed, as business email is not private anyway. Mail Robot X helps free that valuable information, while separating the personal mail from the public gaze".

Mail Robot X holds an archive of all business email, searchable from all employees, which makes collaboration and information sharing seamless. So when a customer has a query, everybody in the company can check the thread of communication regardless of who has corresponded with them previously. Furthermore, personal email is ignored by the system, so privacy is preserved for non-business email.

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