Confidential conversations

Some email is sensitive: a lawyer's advice, a pay review, a patient's results. Mark the conversation Confidential and Rookery takes more care with it. Nothing about it is hidden from the people who can already see the inbox; it changes how it's sent and what the helpers do with it.

What the mark does

While a conversation is marked confidential:

• Replies start with a short notice. By default it says "Confidential: meant only for the people it's addressed to." It goes at the top, where people read it, and only on the email that needs it.
• Adding someone new asks first. If your reply copies in someone who hasn't been on the conversation, Rookery asks "This conversation is confidential. Send it to sam@other.example too?" before it goes. The Cc line says so as you type.
• The helpers keep it to itself. Quill still helps you reply in the conversation. But nothing in it is used for any other conversation: not when Quill writes a new email, not in Ask Rookery's answers, and not in your emailed daily brief, which counts it without naming it.

The conversation shows a Confidential sticker in its header and in the inbox. Tap it to see who marked it and what it changes.

Mark a conversation

1. Open the conversation.
2. Under the subject, beside the tags, choose Mark confidential.

To take the mark off, tap the Confidential sticker and choose Remove the mark. Anyone who can reply in the inbox can do either, and each change is noted on the conversation, with who made it.

When Scout asks

Some email arrives already marked: a subject that starts "PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL", or a first line that says "Attorney–client communication". When Scout spots a mark like that, it asks on the conversation: "This says it's confidential. Mark the conversation confidential?"

• Yes, mark it marks it, as if you'd done it yourself.
• Not confidential leaves it as it is. Scout remembers that sender's mark for this inbox, so it doesn't ask about their mail again.

Scout only reads the top of the email. The paragraph some firms put under every email ("This email may contain confidential information…") is not a mark, and neither is a mark that's on everything a sender writes. Scout never marks anything by itself.

Sent to you by mistake

If an email says it's confidential and looks meant for someone else, Scout says "This looks confidential and may have been sent to you by mistake". It looks for things like:

• none of your addresses is in To or Cc;
• it greets someone by a name nobody at the inbox has;
• a law firm writing for the first time, without greeting anyone here.

Draft a note to the sender puts a short, neutral note in your reply: "I think this was sent to me by mistake. I haven't acted on it. Please let me know how you'd like me to handle it." Read it, change it if you like, and send it, or don't. Nothing is sent or deleted for you.

Settings

In Settings → Inboxes, each inbox has Confidential mail:

• Notice at the top of replies: Confidential (the default), Legal ("Privileged & confidential: attorney–client communication."), or Off.
• Ask me when Scout spots a confidential mark: on by default.

Owners and admins change these for a team inbox, and the owner for a private one. Each change is logged.