Electronic Communication: Some Reflections
Third, there is no clear idea of “ownership” of the communications. This is made abundantly clear in the current mess. If a diocesan chancellor or treasurer conducts diocesan business via a Gmail account, is that his personal communication, or does it belong to the diocese? If it’s sensitive information (perhaps relating to pastoral matters), what steps have we taken to safeguard that sensitivity and who is responsible for protecting it? Again: who owns that communication: the parish, the account holder, or the original sender? If a diocesan officer uses a private account to conduct both personal and diocesan business, how does one differentiate church communications from private ones without reading the messages? (As noted previously, use of company systems for personal business is generally discouraged, if not prohibited entirely by larger companies in the secular world.)
Fourth, how are transitions to be handled, especially if they are unexpected? Electronic communications, particularly email, provide a lot of documentation about current planning and policy. If the person responsible for these activities leaves or dies, how is his successor to continue the work without them? For transitions that result in any animosity (such as the forced removal of an officer), how is it possible to secure this critical information against malicious destruction or theft intended to thwart future work? Within the OCA, remember that Kondratick removed boxes of documents from the OCA Chancery following his suspension as chancellor. In a more email-centric culture, mailboxes are just as vital.
Fifth, there is no expectation of recovery in the event of loss. If a free system such as Gmail is used, there are usually no guarantees at all regarding recoverability of emails in the event the mail store is compromised or destroyed. (See paragraphs 14 and 15 in the Google Terms of Service.) The maintenance of the confidentiality of passwords is the sole responsibility of the account owner (Section 6.1 of the preceding link: “You agree and understand that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of passwords associated with any account you use to access the Services.”) Gmail offers no provision to recover communications deleted from an unauthorized access. The other free providers, including Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AOL, etc., have similar if not identical provisions.
Sixth, there is no assurance that deleted communications are deleted permanently and from all archives. There is no way for a user to know whether digital copies of emails are retained anywhere else. This has significant ramifications for anyone who has conducted extremely sensitive or regrettable exchanges using an email account from a free provider.
None of these questions and concerns has an easy answer, but they do, I think, point to the need for increased use of parish- or diocese-owned systems for handling Church-related communication, if only to provide necessary guarantees of privacy of email conversations and a clear record of “ownership” of them.)
More on this soon. Your comments are encouraged.
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