email
Is it illegal to send email to someone’s work account?
<p>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.</p>
<p>Is it legal or illegal for me to send this kind of email to my ex girlfriend’s work account?</p>
<p>If I send an email from my personal email, like Yahoo!, to her work's email is it ok?</p>

<h2>No, it is not illegal. The company has no standing to punish you for that.</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<h2>However, all the other laws still apply</h2>
<p>Laws on harassment, for instance.  Sometimes people with mental illness think another human &quot;owes them&quot; a relationship (which kind of misses the point of what a relationship <em>is</em>, 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.</p>
<p>All those laws really don't care in which medium one might violate them: sky-writing, naval light signal, email, whatever.</p>

<p>Jurisdiction: <a href="/questions/tagged/england-and-wales" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;england-and-wales&#39;" rel="tag">england-and-wales</a></p>
<p>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 <em>may</em> commit an offence: the more common ones being <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1997/40/contents" rel="noreferrer">stalking and/or harassment</a>, and sending a <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/27/contents" rel="noreferrer">malicious communication</a>.</p>
<p>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 &quot;spicy details&quot; and &quot;private stuff&quot; for example.</p>

<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>

<p>Sending the email is not illegal.</p>
<p>But keep in mind that in many companies, especially larger ones, any and all email that an employee sends <em>or receives</em> in a corporate account may be read by company systems <em>or people</em> without the employee's specific knowledge. That includes</p>
<ul>
<li>automatic spam and virus filtering</li>
<li>management looking for signs of problems (of many different types)</li>
<li>systems to monitor compliance with government regulations (e.g., against insider trading, sensitive information transfer to outside sources, etc.)</li>
<li>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 <em>many</em> different people.</li>
</ul>
<p>In other words, with corporate email there is no expectation of privacy.</p>
<p>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 <em>might</em> have employment related reasons to <em>not</em> respond, even if she has responded via corporate email in the past.</p>
