Lost of folks are sending email with wordy, legalistic disclaimers about privacy and liability. Usually, the emails are from people in corporate offices, but some people at school have them too due to FERPA. These signature files crack me up.

The signatures are often difficult to understand, and they sound full of it. The people who have these signatures attached to their emails often have no say in whether or not they send the files. If someone gets personal information by accident, no one is going to forget it. It’s like a judge telling a jury to ignore what they heard from a lawyer. Not happening. It’s a fiction. So, although the disclaimer is understandable, it’s a fiction.

Here is my vengeance privacy disclaimer:

Caution: electronic email sent through the internet is not secure and could be intercepted by CARNIVORE, Echelon, NarusInsight, Amazon.com, Google.com, or other government or commercial surveillance entities. For your protection, do not send any information whatsoever over the internet. Any information that you do send will be considered the intellectual property of the recipient and will be eligible for repurposing on Youtube, Facebook, or the entire ICanHasCheezburger empire. voxygen.net is not FDIC insured nor is it approved by either the FDA or the Department of Homeland Security. If you have received this communication in error, hit delete.

I feel much better.

1 Comment

  1. That’s just absolutely beautiful. I may have to steal your idea. It reminds me of a disclaimer I see on several sites I frequent alerting Sydney University (or just “any institutions”) that they’re not allowed to use any portion of the profiles in their research, even though there’s no reason any institution would do so to begin with. But someone came up with the idea and suddenly everyone thought they’d better follow suit.

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