Setting up and using message disclaimers

Message disclaimers are notices -- usually short text blocks -- that are added to email messages. They are often used by organizations in an attempt to protect the organization's legal interests. For example, message disclaimers can be used to limit an organization's exposure to vicarious liability, that is, to limit the organization's responsibility for the actions of its employees. This type of disclaimer informs the message recipient that the organization is not responsible for anything written by the author of the message.

About this task

Another commonly used type of message disclaimer consists of a warning stating that the message may not be intended for the current recipient and that it may contain confidential information. The disclaimer directs the "unintended recipient" to dispose of the message without sharing its contents with others.

You can enable or disable the use of message disclaimers from the Domino® server, Notes® client, or both.

To set up and enable message disclaimers on Notes®, you to create a policy document or use an existing policy document, plus a mail policy settings document to define and enable the message disclaimers. Complete the fields on the mail policy settings document, including those on the Message Disclaimers tab. Message disclaimers are enabled on the Notes® client when you select Enabled in the field Notes client can add disclaimers. The message disclaimer text that is added to electronic mail messages is derived from the text that you enter in the field Disclaimer text. Message disclaimers are written to the mail files of every user to whom the policy applies. The disclaimer is stored in the Domino® Directory.

To set up and enable message disclaimers on the Domino® server, you create a policy document or use an existing policy document, plus a mail policy settings document to define the message disclaimer text. The message disclaimer text that you enter in the field Disclaimer text on the mail policy settings document is the disclaimer that is added to your email messages. You enable and disable message disclaimers for the server using the server Configuration Settings document - Router/SMTP > Message Disclaimers tab. When disclaimers are enabled on the server, all messages sent from that server are disclaimed, regardless of the message source.

The mail policy settings document is applied to all users' mail files on a given server by the administration process, using the mail file owner's hierarchical name to determine the corresponding policy document. By default, the administration process runs every twelve hours; therefore, changes do not take effect until the next time the administration process runs. You can force the administration process to process new information in the mail policy settings document, by using the server console command:

tell adminp process mailpolicy

Message disclaimers are not added to incoming SMTP messages; they are only added to outgoing SMTP messages.

Note: In some cases, all recipients, including local Notes® users, receive the disclaimer, but only if all local Notes® users receive MIME messages. Any local Notes® users who have the setting Prefers Notes Rich Text selected in their Person document in the Domino® Directory do not receive the disclaimer. This is the only situation in which the Notes® client splits messages: one message for Notes® client rich text users, and one message for all other users.

You need to be aware of the following information regarding enabling and disabling message disclaimers:

If message disclaimers are enabled for the client and the server, message disclaimers can be added to mail messages via the server or the client. The server is able to determine whether a disclaimer has been added by the Notes® client. For performance reasons, the client usually adds the disclaimer if message disclaimers are enabled on both the client and the server.
If message disclaimers are enabled for the server, but disabled for the client, message disclaimers can only be added to mail messages from the server.
If message disclaimers are disabled for the server but enabled for the client, message disclaimers can only be added from Notes®.
If message disclaimers are disabled from both the server and the client, message disclaimers cannot be added to any mail messages.

You can create one disclaimer and apply it to all messages sent from an organization or organizational unit, or you can create multiple disclaimers for any combination of messages, or create individual disclaimers for individual senders. To associate a disclaimer with an individual sender, use the policy document to define an explicit policy that applies to specific individuals or groups. To associate multiple disclaimers with combinations of mail messages, you also use policies. For example, use organizational polices to create one disclaimer for the Sales organization, another disclaimer for the Accounting department, and so on.

If multiple disclaimers apply to a given sender, choose the correct disclaimers using a hierarchical approach with a default disclaimer applying when no other disclaimer applies to the sender. Policies exist in a hierarchy, ordered from the most specific policy to the least specific. For example, the most specific policy for an individual is an explicit policy that applies directly to that person. The next most specific policy could be an organizational policy defined for all members of that individual's entire organization. In this case, using a hierarchical model, the explicit policy would be used. To ensure that all Internet mail is assigned a disclaimer, you can also create one general disclaimer to be used if no other disclaimer applies to the sender's mail message.

Use the mail policy settings document to ensure that the correct disclaimer for a given sender is available on the server for the mail router and is also deployed to the Notes® mail client.

Using message disclaimers with S/MIME signed and encrypted messages

About this task

You can add disclaimers to all messages, including signed and encrypted messages.

The Message Disclaimers feature is primarily designed for use with Internet-bound messages. While It is possible to add disclaimers to S/MIME signed and encrypted messages at the mail router, S/MIME signed and encrypted messages are not handled well by Notes®. When an S/MIME signed message has a disclaimer added and is received by a Notes® user, the message body can be viewed, but the signature cannot be verified. When an S/MIME encrypted message with a disclaimer added to it is received by a Notes® user, the message body can not be viewed and the message can not be decrypted.

Whenever possible, use the Notes® client to add disclaimers instead of adding them from the server. Issues with signed and encrypted messages do not apply to disclaimers added from the Notes® client because the disclaimer is added before the message is signed. Issues with character sets also do not apply to disclaimers added from the Notes® client because the Notes® client determines the Internet character set used for outgoing messaging. Adding disclaimers at the Notes® client avoids any potential performance problems or delay at the router.

Note: Use the Mail Policy Settings document to enable or disable the use of message disclaimers by the Notes® client.

Enabling message disclaimers from the server

Procedure

Make sure you already have a Configuration Settings document for the server(s) to be configured.
From the Domino® Administrator, click the Configuration tab and expand the Messaging section.
Click Configurations.
Select the Configuration Settings document for the mail server or servers you want to administer, and click Edit Configuration.
Click the Router/SMTP > Message Disclaimers tab.

Complete these fields, and then click Save and Close.

Table 1. Message Disclaimers tab fields
Field	Action
Message disclaimers	Choose one: Enabled -- Allows message disclaimers to be added by the server. Disabled -- Prevents message disclaimers from being added from the server.
Add disclaimers to S/MIME signed or encrypted messages	Choose one: Enabled -- Adds the message disclaimers to S/MIME signed or encrypted messages, as well as to other messages. Disabled -- Prevents message disclaimers from being added to S/MIME signed or encrypted messages.
Logging level	Choose a logging level to be applied when adding message disclaimers. The logging level determines the quantity of information that is logged. This field appears when you choose Enabled in the Message disclaimers field.