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Let’s say I want to reach out to someone working in a company like Apple or Google. For example I have a girlfriend working in Apple and we broke up. Then I send an email to her work account with spicy details asking her to explain or to reconcile…… private stuff.

Is it legal or illegal for me to send this kind of email to my ex girlfriend’s work account?

If I send an email from my personal email, like Yahoo!, to her work's email is it ok?

user41855
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    That would depend on one or more of these things: 1) Your locale, 2) your girlfriend's locale, and 3) your GF's workplace's policies on communications from outside the company – moonman239 Nov 24 '21 at 19:38
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    It's hard to imagine it's illegal - this is done every day without consequence. But given the content you propose, I wonder if she'd be able to use the email to request a restraining order for protection against someone exhibiting irrational behavior. – Don Branson Nov 24 '21 at 19:40
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    @DonBranson "I wonder if she'd be able to use the email to request a restraining order" That depends on the contexts and contents of the email, not on whether the message is sent to the girlfriend's work account. Ordinary communications like bf reconciling with gf are not irrational enough to warrant a protection order. – Iñaki Viggers Nov 24 '21 at 19:49
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    @IñakiViggers - agreed, that has to do with the content, not the destination. Hard to imagine this sort of email having a good outcome, in any case. – Don Branson Nov 24 '21 at 19:57
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    this really reads as "I'm stalking my ex, is it legal to do it like this?". I assume she blocked you from contacting her in other ways, that's why you are looking to do it like this. Just leave it man. If she doesn't want you to contact her you have to respect that. Also keep in mind that company emails are NEVER private. There are always system administrators or other people able to read everything, and the content of your message might cost her her job – Ivo Nov 25 '21 at 07:47
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    @moonman239: Your point 3 is a contract solely between the GF and her workplace, and, thus, irrelevant for the OP. – Heinzi Nov 25 '21 at 08:00
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    @IvoBeckers That's not the case everywhere, e.g. in France emails that are clearly marked private or personal cannot be accessed by the employer, even if using a professional email and computer. Of course, legally private and actually private may be different things, so it's still good practice to keep important personal stuff separated. – AmiralPatate Nov 25 '21 at 10:27
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    @AmiralPatate I worked as a sysadmin in France long enough to know that nobody respects that. I refused many times to give access to such emails just to see the boss ask another admin the same thing. As you mention, if you want to keep something private, just keep it off your work-related stuff. – ereOn Nov 25 '21 at 18:09
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    Rule of thumb: If someone doesn't want to talk personal stuff on their personal channels, they don't want to do it through their business channels either. They'll appreciate it just as much as you if someone called your home phone after you made it clear you did not want to do business with them on your work phone. If you must, and you really shouldn't, send snail mail and don't expect a response. – DKNguyen Nov 26 '21 at 01:45
  • @IvoBeckers aren't you making an assumption that that is the OPs intent? – Ojonugwa Jude Ochalifu Nov 26 '21 at 08:36
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    @OjonugwaJudeOchalifu yes I am. It's not illegal to make assumptions ;) – Ivo Nov 26 '21 at 08:39
  • @IvoBeckers, is it a thing somewhere to fire people based on the sort of harassment they receive? It's not like they can really choose who sends them email anyway (not a priori anyway), and email addresses usually aren't that secret. – ilkkachu Nov 26 '21 at 09:47
  • @ilkkachu I just meant that the content of the message could possibly include any private information of the employee that the employee didn't want her boss to know. Because OP talked about "spicy details" and "private stuff". It's not likely to happen but I just wanted to point out that the email might expose information to her boss that she doesn't want the boss to know, which could include sensitive or secret information that might get someone fired – Ivo Nov 26 '21 at 09:55
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    @ereOn (...) nobody respects that → not "nobody", we do. We have, in our French company, very strict rules and processes to access any data, and private ones are particularly tough to get (there are many hoops to hop through). It is strictly enforced and no sysadmin would give access without the proper approval, for their own good. – WoJ Nov 26 '21 at 13:47
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    "For example I have a girlfriend working in Apple and we broke up." You broke up, so she is not your girlfriend. –  Nov 26 '21 at 16:15
  • Uh… if you really think that could or might be illegal, why not explain how? – Robbie Goodwin Nov 26 '21 at 22:46

4 Answers4

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No, it is not illegal. The company has no standing to punish you for that.

Companies can't sue random people for sending random email... that was largely settled under the (YOU)-CAN-SPAM Act, when in the guise of standardizing US anti-spam laws, spam was largely legalized and state laws were pre-empted and barred from existing.

However, all the other laws still apply

Laws on harassment, for instance. Sometimes people with mental illness think another human "owes them" a relationship (which kind of misses the point of what a relationship is, but never mind that). And those people, who sadly are an all-too-common cliché, tend to act badly in very predictable ways. As such, we have plenty of laws on the books (and plenty of family court judges who have seen it all) to dispense consequences to the misbehavior and protection to the victim.

All those laws really don't care in which medium one might violate them: sky-writing, naval light signal, email, whatever.

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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  • Isn't CAN-SPAM Act concerning marketing / advertisement, which a private e-mail to an acquaintance isn't anyway? I mean, when I write to my ex, I usually don't send her an "unsubscribe" link :) – Dmitry Grigoryev Nov 26 '21 at 22:26
  • @DmitryGrigoryev CAN-SPAM was a hot mess of a law, designed mainly to prevent states from installing actually competent laws. I think it could be bent to this purpose. But as said, that presumes there's nothing else illegal in the message. The 1st Amendment still applies: the government is really, really on their back foot to prohibit speech generally. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Nov 27 '21 at 19:46
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Jurisdiction:

There is nothing in law that makes sending an email to a company's account unlawful - it is the content and the sender's intent that may commit an offence: the more common ones being stalking and/or harassment, and sending a malicious communication.

That said, it will depend on the particular circumstances, such as whether the receiptient has made it clear they don't want any more contact and what is meant by "spicy details" and "private stuff" for example.

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Sending the email with personal content to a corporate email account would not generally be illegal, depending obviously on jurisdiction but not anywhere I'm aware of.

However, the content of the email as you describe it could be considered harassment, extortion, and/or defamation which would make sending (and possibly creating) the email a criminal act regardless of the recipient address or server.

The recipient (probably assisted by their company's legal and HR teams) would have grounds to file criminal charges against you which would go way and beyond any civil lawsuits over sending email to someone who doesn't want to communicate with you ever could.

jwenting
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    In most jurisdictions, only the State/district Attorney can file criminal charges. Harassment is a Civil matter, as in, between two citizens. – Trish Nov 25 '21 at 10:45
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    @Trish I'm not sure where you're generalising from, but harassment of an ex-partner falls into the category of gender-based violence and is a criminal matter in many countries, especially the UK and much of Europe. – Graham Nov 25 '21 at 14:26
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    "most jurisdictions" and "State/district Attorney" sounds incompatible to me. Isn't that just a US job title? – Martin Smith Nov 25 '21 at 16:40
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    @MartinSmith Staatsanwaltschaft (german) is literally "state attorney" in translation, French would be advocate générale and so on - the meaning is the attorney or lawyer that is acting on behalf of the governmental body. The civil person can generally bring something to the attention of them, and then said attorney brings the criminal charges, representing the state's interest of upholding order. At times, the civil person can appear in the same trial as an added party on the side of that attorney. – Trish Nov 25 '21 at 19:29
  • @Trish either the company or the ex can go to the police and file a report, this will then lead to a police investigation which will likely lead to an arrest. Police may need a prosecutor or judge to sign off on the arrest warrant but in most of Europe that's more a formality than anything. That's how police can arrest someone they see committing a crime too, they can arrest you on their own without first asking for permission from a prosecutor (though yes, that's now idiotically changing in the US, leading to many criminals getting away under the nose of the police). – jwenting Nov 26 '21 at 08:49
  • The recipient cannot "file" criminal charges against the OP. – Gregory Currie Nov 26 '21 at 22:27
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Sending the email is not illegal.

But keep in mind that in many companies, especially larger ones, any and all email that an employee sends or receives in a corporate account may be read by company systems or people without the employee's specific knowledge. That includes

  • automatic spam and virus filtering
  • management looking for signs of problems (of many different types)
  • systems to monitor compliance with government regulations (e.g., against insider trading, sensitive information transfer to outside sources, etc.)
  • employees covering for others (e.g., Alice is on vacation but her job is critical and some people email her directly instead of support@ so she auto-forwards all her email to Bob so that he can catch any problems while she is out), etc. So anything you send to your ex-girlfriend could be read by many different people.

In other words, with corporate email there is no expectation of privacy.

In some companies, personal email on a corporate account is either technically forbidden (but allowed within reason as long as it is not disruptive) or is specifically limited (e.g., personal only, no messages regarding other employment even if it is not in conflict with the employee's contract and position, no discussion of company business with outsiders, etc.) As a result, while your ex-girlfriend will likely receive your messages, she might have employment related reasons to not respond, even if she has responded via corporate email in the past.