Introduction

The use of E-mail in general raises issues with regards to the protection of personal information as well as to the respect of copyright. In the following pages you will find information that may help you address these issue. This information designed to help you address these issues in schools and classes does not constitute a legal notice and we do not claim that it is comprehensive.

The advent of School Board Portals with their secure and personalised access will alleviate some of the concerns and issues raised here.

In a Nutshell

The use of E-mail may require the user's family name and first name and, in some cases, additional information, to be published in an address book, whether public or private. At the elementary level, parental authorization may be required, while the consent of secondary students (and/or their parents) is required for posting their family name and first name in a public address book. Parents should be notified. Here are sample forms for parents that originally appeared in the document entitled Implantation de services de courriel dans les écoles : exigences à satisfaire afin d'assurer la protection des droits des personnes et le partage des responsabilités (Université de Montréal, Centre de recherche en droit public [Québec: Conseil du trésor, 2000]) as well as a model for elementary and secondary students.

E-mail software lets you create lists of E-mail addresses. These lists can be private (created on each user's computer) or public (created on a server). When a private list is used to send a message to several people simultaneously, care should be given to hide the list of recipients in the Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy or Confidential transmission) window of the mailer software so that recipients do not see the names and addresses of all members of that E-mail list. When a public list is used to send a message, one does not see the list of recipients. However, identifying information is still automatically provided in the form of the author's E-mail address which is visible to all the recipients. For elementary students, disclosure of this personal E-mail address may require the authorization of parents. Secondary students must give their consent for disclosure of their E-mail address and their parents should be notified.

Users can also forward a message they receive from someone. In such cases, they should notify the author and should not modify the forwarded message in any way. Students and parents should be informed about the various aspects of the "Forward" feature with regard to privacy and copyright issues.

Software such as "First Class" adds information to the original message (when the message was read, by whom, etc.). Parents should be made aware of all the information that the message may contain.

Furthermore, some of the features of electronic mail may lead to the disclosure of personal information: automatic signature, calling cards and attachments. Consequently, secondary students and the parents of elementary and secondary students should be informed about this situation. If existing databases are used to generate E-mail addresses, it would be wise to notify parents and to obtain the consent of secondary students and of the parents of elementary students before proceeding.

If two or more organizations share the same E-mail server, these organizations must enter into agreements that cover the transfer of responsibilities and the obligations of the hosted and hosting organizations.