06:50
Faizan
Your inbox isn't the only place your emails might be ending up. Whether it's a hacker who is now monitoring your communications or a network administrator exercising monitoring privileges, someone could fix it so your emails are sent to his account. You need to be aware of some of the privacy limitations on certain types of email accounts, as well as the possibility that your email account has been hacked.
Email Forwarding
Email forwarding is a webmail function that allows you to share emails across different accounts. When you set up email forwarding, you tell the webmail server to forward a copy of all the emails you receive to the email accounts you specify. The emails your webmail account receives will remain in its inbox, and forwarded copies will appear in the other accounts you specified. However, some webmail systems have an option that can delete any email they forward from your inbox immediately after forwarding it.
System Administrators
Unless you run your own webmail software on your own domain on your own server, you don't have exclusive control over your email account. When you use online services that let you sign up for email accounts, your work email accounts or those at your schools the IT staff has control over what happens to your emails. Network administrators may scan emails at will as they enter the server and internally forward the emails to administrator accounts or any other account they choose.
Hackers
Network administrators on your email service aren't the only ones who could be getting copies of your emails. If a hacker manages to compromise your login credentials and access your account, he could simply go into your account settings and setup email forwarding to an email account he controls. If you don't check your account's settings periodically, you wouldn't know that your webmail is sending all your emails to the hacker's account. If you find that someone set up an email forwarding on your account, you should delete the setting and change your password.
User Awareness
You cannot simply take the privacy of your email account forgotten. If you are using an email account with your employer or school, learn what degree of privacy you do or do not have for your emails. Generally, organizations reserve the right to monitor the contents of your emails when you use their servers. Familiarize yourself with the privacy provisions in the terms of service for any webmail providers you sign up with.
Email Forwarding
Email forwarding is a webmail function that allows you to share emails across different accounts. When you set up email forwarding, you tell the webmail server to forward a copy of all the emails you receive to the email accounts you specify. The emails your webmail account receives will remain in its inbox, and forwarded copies will appear in the other accounts you specified. However, some webmail systems have an option that can delete any email they forward from your inbox immediately after forwarding it.
System Administrators
Unless you run your own webmail software on your own domain on your own server, you don't have exclusive control over your email account. When you use online services that let you sign up for email accounts, your work email accounts or those at your schools the IT staff has control over what happens to your emails. Network administrators may scan emails at will as they enter the server and internally forward the emails to administrator accounts or any other account they choose.
Hackers
Network administrators on your email service aren't the only ones who could be getting copies of your emails. If a hacker manages to compromise your login credentials and access your account, he could simply go into your account settings and setup email forwarding to an email account he controls. If you don't check your account's settings periodically, you wouldn't know that your webmail is sending all your emails to the hacker's account. If you find that someone set up an email forwarding on your account, you should delete the setting and change your password.
User Awareness
You cannot simply take the privacy of your email account forgotten. If you are using an email account with your employer or school, learn what degree of privacy you do or do not have for your emails. Generally, organizations reserve the right to monitor the contents of your emails when you use their servers. Familiarize yourself with the privacy provisions in the terms of service for any webmail providers you sign up with.
