Saturday, November 9, 2013

FBI questionable email monitoring





This post is by Paul Babicki, president of Netiquette IQ

The article below illustrates yet again the criticality of clarity in email which is often discuss on this blog and in my book. Many things are critical to good Netiquette

This article was taken from techdirt.com on 11/9/2013

FBI Uses Invitation To Investigate One Email As An Excuse To Dig Through Multiple Email Accounts

from the thanks-for-the-'help,'-G-men! dept

As we just recently covered, the FBI's enthusiasm for starting investigations far outweighs its interest in ensuring they are justifiable. A site owner who forwarded an email containing a threat to hack his site was misinterpreted by an FBI agent to be a threat against the agency, kicking off (at least) six years of monitoring. Even as evidence failed to pile up, the investigation went continued unabated, ultimately costing the site owners' a chunk of income as donors scattered when news of the investigation became public.

Here's yet another example of the FBI's mentality at work -- seizing on anything as an excuse to dig into personal information. This particular person was Jill Kelley who, because of the FBI's actions, became part of the
national sideshow involving General Petraeus' affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell. On the advice of military officials, Kelley reported the suspected cyberstalking of her and her husband to the FBI. Apparently, the FBI felt this gave it free rein to invade Kelley's privacy.
We authorized the FBI to look at one threatening email we received, and only that email, so that the FBI could identify the stalker. However, the FBI ignored our request and violated our trust by unlawfully searching our private emails and turning us into the targets of an intrusive investigation without any just cause—all the while without informing us that they had identified the email stalker as Paula Broadwell, who was having an affair with Mr. Petraeus.
It looks as if the FBI is way too willing to extend itself permissions that haven't been specifically granted. Maybe the investigating agents felt Kelley meant to give the agency carte blanche access to her and her husband's email accounts, but was unable to articulate her desire to have her privacy violated thanks to the stress she was under. Or something.

All of this and yet the FBI didn't feel compelled to apprise Kelley of the outcome of its intrusive investigation. (In the end, charges were dropped.) Rather, it opted to leak her information to the press and misconstrue the contents of certain emails it had obtained without permission, leaving she and her husband to deal with the resulting fallout (rumors of an affair, media campouts in Kelley's yard).

The resulting investigation by the military cleared her (and the general she was linked to by the FBI's perusal of her emails) of any impropriety but the damage was already done. The agency's decision to exceed its authorization has managed to turn another person into an advocate against its excesses.

It appears from the NSA's leaks that the government may be trying to collect everything about everyone and everywhere—including America's closest friends and allies—with or without the knowledge of the White House. Unaccountable individuals given free rein to invade people's privacy—and a government that maintains the tools that permit them to do so—are a prescription for a privacy disaster.

With all the current economic, political, social and diplomatic issues facing the country, it is understandable that many Americans seem relatively unconcerned about intrusions on individual privacy. They shouldn't be. The unauthorized search of my family's emails was triggered when we appealed to law enforcement for protection. But who knows what else might set off governmental invasion of privacy—politics or some other improper motivation might suffice. If this could happen to us, it could happen to you.
Not only does this sort of behavior chill speech and make a mockery of the Fourth Amendment, it also makes the country -- and its citizens -- less safe. If people have to think twice before asking law enforcement or investigative agencies to look into possible criminal activity out of fear of having their own personal information sifted through or subjected to months of intrusive surveillance, they may opt to ignore the problem or take matters into their own hands. Either outcome is undesirable.

The NSA has made many placating statements about how it's
limited by its authorizations, rather than its capabilities. These have never been particularly reassuring, and are even less so now, as its investigative counterpart appears more than willing to twist requests for help into invitations to snoop.
 
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Friday, November 8, 2013

Presenting a false choice in email








Posted by Paul Babicki, author of Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email.

The following is from Jordie van Rijn's blog on EmailMonday.com .

Presenting false choice [in marketing email]
Want people to make a choice? Yes? Are you sure? Really? I can’t change your mind?
Offering too many choices can be confusing for your client. You want your email newsletter to be focused. Limit offering choices if possible. And, if you must, keep them simple. Choice might sound great, but the old paradigm “Don’t make me think” is still true for many forms of online marketing.

Often choices presented in an email are false anyway.
Different versions of a product are presented, a low, middle and high-end option, each with its own call to action. You click and end up on the same landing page for all three options. Why not simplify it and present one very strong call to action?
An online bookstore found that category links and offers (thriller, romance, science fiction) worked better in most cases. It might just be that presenting extra (false) choices as equal lost email conversions and sales. Is this your silent conversion killer?

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Wordiness in emails




By its nature, email works best with messages not more a page or two long. Attachments are the best utilization for expanding email communications. The follow blog segment provides some basic thoughts. If any reader would like to have this expanded, kindly comment on this.
    
"This report by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read."
 - Winston Churchill



Wordiness

During the course of a busy day, receiving a long and detailed email is seldom welcomed.  Worse still, the longer a correspondence is, the less likely it is to be read.  There also is a distinct possibility that even if it is read, it may not be done completely or with full attention.  
If a long email is necessary, the proper Netiquette should be followed to insure readability, the early introduction of a major topic and a brief explanation for the need to have a long message.  It may also be best to have the correspondence divided and sent separately.
One long-term negative factor of sending a long or verbose message may set a bad precedent in which the recipient will not immediately or ever read future correspondence.
 Simple steps to avoid wordiness
Certain words can contribute to make sentences less clear as well as providing more verbosity.  Among these are:
·         Kind of
·         Sort of
·         For all intents and purposes
·         In other words
·         Basically, actually
·         As previously stated
·         Generally speaking
·         In particular
·         Generally, in general
Redundant words and appositives
An appositive is defined (by reference.com) as a word or phrase to identify, amplify or rename the preceding word.  These can be unnecessarily obvious.  Samples of these appositives which add no value are shown below:
Wordy:
This is an example of an appositive which provides unnecessary identification.
 
George Washington, the first president of the United States and a founding father . . .
 
Better:
George Washington, the first president . . .
 
Best
George Washington . . .
 
Redundant Pairs
Most email writers cannot avoid using redundant pairs and this is a common mistake made even in brief messages.  Some generic examples of these include:
·         past                  remembrances
·         basic                fundamentals
·         true                  facts
·         honest              truth
·         terrible             tragedy
·         final                 outcome
·         unexpected       surprise
·         past                 history
·         future               plans
·         boundary          line
There are many, many more of these and the best way to reduce their usage is to maintain good Netiquette in messages and to edit text before sending.

___________________________________________________

My book, "NetiquetteIQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email" has gone on sale at the CreateSpace estore:http://createspace.com/4083121

 As a NetiquetteIQ blog reader, you can use the discount code KBQALZA7. This discount is only through the estore. Thank you for your support on the blog and with the book. The book and Kindle version are now available on Amazon. Please visit my author profile at


More good news!

The Kindle version of my book is now available! Go to the following site to purchase it:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FFAMN0U

#PaulBabicki
#netiquette 
 












 

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

An article by Diane Marcus reviewing Paul Babicki's new book


 

 





The following is an article from Diane Markus' latest "Essential Business Etiquette Newsletter". Please visit her website at www.essentialbusinessetiquette.com . Her company offers training in business etiquette.

"If you have ever wondered if there was such a thing as proper email etiquette, the answer is yes, there is. Thanks to a new book by Paul Babicki, "Netiquette IQ, A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email", there are many things to consider when writing an email at work to coworkers, to your boss or to clients.
  
According to Mr. Babicki, writing a good email can benefit your company "by giving you an edge over others, empowers job-interview results and resumes, fosters additional letter writing quality and effectiveness, and offers a means to incorporate a sense of process to your communications." (page 5)
  
Writing a poor email can make you look unprofessional. If a client receives a poorly written email, he may wonder what else you cannot do. It could also prevent you from getting promoted. Writing a proper email is just as important as writing a proper business letter.
  
The majority of emails sent during the day are spam. Therefore you should open any email with great caution. Your office should have a system that will find most email spam. It is impossible to find 100% of spam. When you do find it, be sure to report it.
  
One thing to avoid, says Mr. Babicki, is any kind of abbreviations such as using the number 2 when you mean "two" or the letter "B" for the word" be". Spell out all words just like you would in a business letter. Emoticons should not be used in a business email. Be sure to spell check your business emails just as you would any business letter.
  
I learned that I was doing a few things wrong. One thing we should not do is to keep sending back and forth the same email over and over again when you are now talking about a new subject. Whenever you write back to someone and are now talking about a different subject, start a new email.  Always write in complete sentences. Do not use "OK", or "I will" but write out "I will read that." (page 35).
  
Mr. Babicki tells readers that a poorly written email can cost a company thousands of dollars. When an email is written correctly, it reflects well on your company.
  
He encourages us to never begin a sentence with a number. The numbers one through ten should always be spelled out, and you should always hyphenate the numbers twenty-one to ninety-nine. (page 50)
  
There are several chapters that include advanced email etiquette. He even provides email etiquette for children and teens. Mr. Babicki includes a very useful number of appendixes in the back of the book.
  
If you want to be seen as writing a proper business email, I highly suggest that you purchase this book, the first of its kind on the market. This should be an item on you desk alongside your dictionary and thesaurus. Read this book cover to cover and then read it again.
  
Writing a proper can make a difference in how your coworkers, boss or clients perceive you. It can make your clients think that you know what you are doing and you are a professional. It is one tool that will help you find new clients and keep the ones you already have."
  
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My book, "NetiquetteIQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email" has gone on sale at the CreateSpace estore:http://createspace.com/4083121

 As a NetiquetteIQ blog reader, you can use the discount code KBQALZA7. This discount is only through the estore. Thank you for your support on the blog and with the book. The book and Kindle version are now available on Amazon. Please visit my author profile at


More good news!

The Kindle version of my book is now available! Go to the following site to purchase it:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FFAMN0U

#PaulBabicki
#netiquette 
 


Monday, November 4, 2013

Paul is now a blog contributor for Everything-Email



              
 
 
I am now a regular blog contributor with Everything-Email,
 
http://www.everything-email.com/ sponsored by CrossWare. Visit it here:

http://www.crossware.co.nz/ Great product!
 
We will be reselling it through our company, Tabula Rosa Systems:

www.tabularosa.net
 
 
 
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My book, "NetiquetteIQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email" has gone on sale at the CreateSpace estore:http://createspace.com/4083121


As a NetiquetteIQ blog reader, you can use the discount code KBQALZA7. This discount is only through the estore. Thank you for your support on the blog and with the book. The book and Kindle version are now available on Amazon. Please visit my author profile at


More good news!

The Kindle version of my book is now available! Go to the following site to purchase it:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FFAMN0U

#PaulBabicki
#netiquette 
 
 
 

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Text bombing - A must for every parent!













Most of my blogs focus on email Netiquette. However, upon reading this article on Cyberbullying, I found it far too compelling not to share it.

The following is taken from an article published by Ann Brenhoff,  The Huffington Post, 11/03/2013. The rest of this great article can be viewed at the link above.

At the end of last year, a mom pulled my son over and asked him to stop sending gibberish text messages to her kid. The two boys were fooling around, copying and pasting nonsensical messages and texting them back and forth. It was a duel of annoyance, something 12-year-old boys specialize in.

For my family (with an unlimited texting plan), it was an issue of my son just fooling around and wasting time when he perhaps could have been doing something more productive like his homework. But for this other family, it was that, but also an expensive way to use up their texting plan's limits. The boys' fooling around had a price tag attached to it for this family. I got it and put a stop to the practice post haste.

What I didn't realize at the time was that my son and this boy were practicing a primitive form of text bombing, a cyber bullying technique that has blossomed because of apps that enable you to torment your target with up to 10,000 text messages.
Internet safety expert Sedgrid Lewis, who runs SpyParent.net, called text bombing a "serious underground problem that is about to burst into the mainstream scene" and urges parents to educate themselves about it. In an interview with The Huffington Post, he said, "Imagine getting 10,000 text messages to your phone telling you that you are an ugly slut and should die?" He added, "That's what some kids are doing to each other."

In 2011, the suicide of Haley "Danielle" Cox, a 15-year-old Louisiana girl, was blamed on text bombing. According to KSLA News, one of the girl's schoolmates used the web site ClamTXT.com to set up more than 100 taunting text with messages like "I won't miss you", "You're not important" and "Just end it all." Danielle was treated and released from the hospital on her first suicide attempt, but her parents say she was so troubled by the text bombing that several months later, she took her own life. Danielle's mother is suing the parents of the 17-year-old who text bombed her daughter for not adequately supervising his use of their computer.

Spyparent's Lewis says he regularly sees calls for "revenge" text bombing on Twitter. "If someone ends a relationship, people will put their ex's cell number out there and tell people to text bomb it," he said.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My book, "NetiquetteIQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email" has gone on sale at the CreateSpace estore:http://createspace.com/4083121


As a NetiquetteIQ blog reader, you can use the discount code KBQALZA7. This discount is only through the estore. Thank you for your support on the blog and with the book. The book and Kindle version are now available on Amazon. Please visit my author profile at


More good news!

The Kindle version of my book is now available! Go to the following site to purchase it:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FFAMN0U

#PaulBabicki
#netiquette