There are a number of measures in place to prevent data breaches occurring when sending emails. Please see below for a reminder of the actions that all can take to protect the privacy of residents and customers:
- Beware of the dangers of auto-complete – If people’s email addresses come up automatically when starting a new email message then you have autofill enabled in your settings. While this tool might save time, it could cost you if you send an email to the wrong person by mistake. The external recipients tick box is in place as a safeguard but it is also worth remembering that you can delete any external email addresses that are out of date or come up as first choice on autocomplete when they shouldn’t.
- Attachments – The external recipients tick box is in place as a safeguard to check you have the right attachment but it is also worth having strong naming conventions and opening the attachment before sending to check you are not inadvertently supplying personal data to a third party.
- Send electronic documents securely – If you need to send electronic documents, consider encrypting or password-protecting them. This reduces the risk of the wrong person being able to access the documents.
- Send passwords to protected documents in separate emails – If you’re sending password-protected electronic documents, make sure you send the password separately.