{"id":994,"date":"2017-10-05T20:45:12","date_gmt":"2017-10-05T20:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/"},"modified":"2022-08-03T18:45:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T18:45:24","slug":"dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Become the Next Victim of Auto-Complete Errors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The news headlines over the last two weeks provide plenty of examples of email auto-complete gone wrong.\u00a0 A lawyer sent a confidential and unflattering Senate Intelligence Committee letter to a Twitter prankster that had a fake email address that looked like his client\u2019s, but was not.\u00a0 The letter was immediately published by the prankster.\u00a0 A second lawyer sent a privileged email internally at his law firm regarding an undisclosed, confidential SEC investigation of a client.\u00a0 That lawyer accidentally included a Wall Street Journal reporter as a recipient of the email.\u00a0 The investigation became front page news.<\/p>\n

Both errors appear to be the result of auto-complete snafus.\u00a0 In almost every email system, all you need to do is type the first few letters of an intended recipients name or email address and, if you have emailed them before, your email will automatically provide the full email address it thinks you are looking for.\u00a0 Errors arise when email addresses are similar or when users simply move too fast.<\/p>\n

The auto-complete problem is a much broader issue than just these recent law firm errors and is a recurring theme in restrictive covenant<\/a> and trade secret cases.\u00a0 In many cases, it is an auto-complete error that exposed the potentially wrongful conduct in the first place.\u00a0 For example, the auto-correct error comes up when a departing sales person moves to a new company and immediately starts communicating with her prior clients. Those clients have the sales person\u2019s old email address saved into their email system.\u00a0 When the client emails the sales person, they sometimes just check the first few letters of the email address to make sure it is correct, and do not notice they are emailing the wrong company entirely. \u00a0For example, they email JaneDoe@oldemployer.com when they intend to email JaneDoe@newemployer.com. \u00a0Employers regularly monitor a departed employee\u2019s old email account and discover non-compete and non-solicit violations when these types of emails hit the old inbox.<\/p>\n

There are a few things lawyers, companies and employees can do to lower the risk of becoming the next victim of an auto-complete blunder.\u00a0 The most obvious advice is to pay more attention and double check your recipient list before sending any sensitive correspondence.\u00a0 In the reality of this fast-paced world and the rapid pace of correspondence, there are some other practical steps you can take to avoid these issues.\u00a0 You can clear your auto-complete list to remove any problematic email addresses you know could present a potential problem.\u00a0 This is also recommended anytime you switch employers.\u00a0 For example, in the first example above, if you know you have experienced a phishing scam by a fake email address, you can proactively remove that email address from your computer\u2019s auto-complete list to prevent any mix-ups.\u00a0 If you simply cannot risk an error under any circumstances, then the best option is to simply disable the auto-complete function on your email entirely.<\/p>\n

This will not solve the problem of third-parties inadvertently emailing you at an old email address.\u00a0 To make the error less likely, you can update your relationships with your new email address by sending them personalized emails from that address pointing out the change, providing a new contact card to update their system, and asking them to delete your old email from their system.\u00a0 \u00a0While there is no fool-proof way to avoid the potential for an auto-complete error, taking these steps should reduce the risk.<\/p>\n

As always, let me know<\/a> if you have any questions or if I can help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The news headlines over the last two weeks provide plenty of examples of email auto-complete gone wrong.\u00a0 A lawyer sent a confidential and unflattering Senate Intelligence Committee letter to a Twitter prankster that had a fake email address that looked like his client\u2019s, but was not.\u00a0 The letter was immediately published by the prankster.\u00a0 A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,9],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDon\u2019t Become the Next Victim of Auto-Complete Errors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The auto-complete problem is a recurring theme in restrictive covenant & trade secret cases.Follow these steps to reduce the risk of an auto-complete error.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t Become the Next Victim of Auto-Complete Errors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The auto-complete problem is a recurring theme in restrictive covenant & trade secret cases.Follow these steps to reduce the risk of an auto-complete error.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-05T20:45:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-03T18:45:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/auto-complete.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Berman Fink Van Horn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Berman Fink Van Horn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/\",\"name\":\"Don\u2019t Become the Next Victim of Auto-Complete Errors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/auto-complete.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-05T20:45:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-03T18:45:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9\"},\"description\":\"The auto-complete problem is a recurring theme in restrictive covenant & trade secret cases.Follow these steps to reduce the risk of an auto-complete error.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/auto-complete.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/auto-complete.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":627,\"caption\":\"auto-complete|\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Don\u2019t Become the Next Victim of Auto-Complete Errors\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/\",\"name\":\"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\",\"description\":\"A Business Law Firm In Atlanta\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9\",\"name\":\"Berman Fink Van Horn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Berman Fink Van Horn\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/author\/bfv\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Don\u2019t Become the Next Victim of Auto-Complete Errors","description":"The auto-complete problem is a recurring theme in restrictive covenant & trade secret cases.Follow these steps to reduce the risk of an auto-complete error.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Don\u2019t Become the Next Victim of Auto-Complete Errors","og_description":"The auto-complete problem is a recurring theme in restrictive covenant & trade secret cases.Follow these steps to reduce the risk of an auto-complete error.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/","og_site_name":"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","article_published_time":"2017-10-05T20:45:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-03T18:45:24+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":627,"url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/auto-complete.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Berman Fink Van Horn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Berman Fink Van Horn","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/","name":"Don\u2019t Become the Next Victim of Auto-Complete Errors","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/auto-complete.jpg","datePublished":"2017-10-05T20:45:12+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-03T18:45:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9"},"description":"The auto-complete problem is a recurring theme in restrictive covenant & trade secret cases.Follow these steps to reduce the risk of an auto-complete error.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/auto-complete.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/auto-complete.jpg","width":1200,"height":627,"caption":"auto-complete|"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/dont-become-the-next-victim-of-auto-complete-errors\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Don\u2019t Become the Next Victim of Auto-Complete Errors"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/","name":"Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.","description":"A Business Law Firm In Atlanta","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0d284d556606ade11404fcbd125efdb9","name":"Berman Fink Van Horn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deb7805c35c49d2de3c1f64d329a518a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Berman Fink Van Horn"},"url":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/author\/bfv\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14115,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions\/14115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}