I’m too impressed with the ability of an email confidentiality notice to actually protect information that would not otherwise be protected through an NDA or some other agreement.

Out-Law, the IT law site run by Pinsent Masons, generally agrees:

Email notices and email footers

Do not take it for granted that your confidentiality notice can be relied upon, however much care goes into its preparation. There is no legal authority on the value of these notices in email communications. When the notice is added automatically to every external communication, there is a risk that a court would consider that the venom in your warning has been diluted.

The value of the notice is that, if the disclosure of the content of an email becomes a subject of dispute, it would be possible to point a court to the existence of the confidentiality notice and argue that the recipient should have known to not disclose the contents of the message.

If your organisation decides that it is worth including such a notice, just be aware that it will be in a court’s discretion to ignore it.

But I understand that lots and lots of people in the business and legal worlds have come to expect them, especially from lawyers. The absence of a confidentiality notice could possibly make you look like you don’t know what you are doing, at least to some clients. So there may be some utility to having them for appearances sake even if they aren’t all that effective.

Business Link is a really handy site for getting template agreements and disclaimers and things. It is run by the UK government. They have a sample business email disclaimer:

This email and its attachments may be confidential and are intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of “[business name]“.

If you are not the intended recipient of this email and its attachments, you must take no action based upon them, nor must you copy or show them to anyone.

Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in error.

I wanted something shorter as well as to drop the “any views or opinions” bit, so I came up with:

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE. This email and its attachments may be privileged and confidential. They are intended solely for the use of the intended recipient.

If you are not the intended recipient, you must take no action based upon them, and you must not copy or show them to anyone. Please contact the sender if you believe you have received this email in error.

This could be added to an email signature or perhaps could be added on by your host to all emails from your organisation.

But since the Companies Act requires that you also have you Company registration number and registered office information, all of this, plus your own contact information, adds up to a pretty hefty signature!