E-mail: Like a message in a bottle, it just may resurface

February 18, 1998
Web posted at: 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 GMT)

(CNN) -- E-mail has the immediacy of a phone chat but it also has the permanence of a written document, and experts say that hitting the delete key doesn't mean that electronic mail will disappear.

With only two well-placed keystrokes, a computer worker can find a deleted file and make it readable again. E-mail is probably still on the computer that sent it, or on any of the main computers called file servers that relay the messages.

"It doesn't really get erased. It just appears to be, but it's there and it can be gotten, in most cases relatively easily," said Scott Gaidano, of DriveSavers Data Recovery.

The permanence of e-mail is being used in the legal arena.

For example, investigators from independent counsel Ken Starr's office have taken computers used by Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp to look for traces of e-mail shared by the two women in the probe of allegations that President Clinton had an affair with Lewinsky, a former White House intern.

Software giant Oracle helped the prosecution in a case involving a former employee who used fake e-mail. And, e-mail was used as evidence when Yale University probed a professor's alleged affair.

"Law enforcement people know that this is likely to be the place where there will be ... some of the admissions made, and so that's something that they seek right away," said Joe Russoniello, a former federal prosecutor.

Experts were asked to list the 10 commandments of using e-mail, but they could come up with only two: Don't operate under the assumption that e-mail is private, and don't believe that the delete key actually makes e-mail disappear.

Correspondent Greg Lefevre contributed to this report.

Related stories:

• Man convicted for sending hateful e-mail - February 11, 1998
• Retrial set for Internet hate mail case - December 2, 1997
• Hate case raises Internet free speech issues - November 9, 1997

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