Business-related communication at UBC should be conducted through UBC work email systems (i.e., FASmail). It should not be conducted through personal email addresses (i.e., Gmail). This includes auto-forwarding, meaning that staff and faculty are not permitted to auto-forward work emails to a personal account.

It is not recommended to conduct long or sensitive personal correspondence using your UBC email address, as there is a possibility that work-related emails may be disclosed by UBC in response to an access request under FIPPA.

Sending small amounts of private information between secure UBC work emails is acceptable. For very large quantities of sensitive data, it is recommended that you encrypt an attachment.

Temporary access to your UBC email outside of Canada is acceptable.

There are mandated retention schedules for UBC email content, and rules can be set in work inboxes to automatically comply with these schedules. The typical retention time for emails is five years, or two years for inactive mailboxes.

Any information that can be used to identify an individual and is not publicly available is considered personal information and must be kept confidential. For students, this includes any details that could be used to identify them such as email addresses, names and student numbers.

• Student emails must not be put in the "To" or "cc" fields in an email to multiple people, as this would constitute a breach of privacy (i.e., disclosing student email addresses).
• Information about students should not be shared in emails to external (non-UBC) email accounts, except if you are communicating with the student whose information you are discussing and they have consented.

Because external email systems host data outside of Canada, they are not considered secure under FIPPA. You should exercise considerable caution when sending any personal information to an external email address. When someone contacts you from such an account, it is best to discuss only their information, if they consent.

Do not, for any reason, share your CWL credentials with a third party for the purposes of linking your email to an external service provider.

Understand that your device needs to be secured if it is storing private information (as any UBC work email account no doubt will); ensure you have a secure passcode on smartphones and laptops.