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Story URL: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39116485,00.htm

Microsoft to push automatically deleting emails
"This message will self-destruct in five seconds..."

By Jo Best

Published: Monday 20 October 2003

The latest version of Microsoft Office will be launched tomorrow – with a new feature that could land its users in legal hot water.

The new version of Outlook included in the package will feature an email 'self-destruct' feature, allowing users to mark their email and have it automatically delete itself after a set number of days, Microsoft claims.

And that's not all – the company says the sender will be able to limit who gets to look at the email itself, allowing the Office user in question to add a code to the email preventing the recipient from printing a copy of the email or forwarding it on to others.

The thinking behind the new product – Information Rights Management – is that it will help keep companies' correspondence more secure to stop sensitive emails coming back to haunt them at a later date and even being used as evidence in court.

While the software may help company bigwigs and minions alike avoid leaving themselves open to charges by leaving an email with someone they shouldn't have, the new software could land users in a whole new set of trouble. Keeping email records is a legal obligation for companies and those who can't produce them when they need to could fall foul of the wrath of the courts.

One company who suffered as a result of just such an issue is, you've guessed it Microsoft. During a court case over disputed video delivery technology, Microsoft was ordered to produce to a series of 70 emails which related to the case – but which the software Goliath claimed had inexplicably been deleted and couldn't be recovered...

The revamped Outlook will also include new anti-spam measures and a facility for making emails easier to read, with a view to cutting down on printouts.