A $1 Billion Email Gaffe 314
Jake writes in with the story behind an explosive NYTimes scoop last week. It seems that the Times's pharmaceutical industry reporter, Alex Berenson, scored a page-one blockbuster when he revealed that Eli Lilly was looking to reach a settlement with federal prosecutors over the company's alleged inappropriate marketing of anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa. A settlement figure of $1 billion was mentioned. This scoop dropped into Berenson's inbox when a lawyer for one of Lilly's retained firms mis-addressed an email to a colleague with the same last name as that of the Times reporter. Some online observers are speculating that auto-complete is to blame, but this has not been confirmed.
Update: 02/08 17:19 GMT by KD : Jake writes in with an update: it seems that while Berenson did receive a misdirected e-mail from Pepper Hamilton, that e-mail did not contain a detailed description of the status of the Eli Lilly settlement talks. Berenson got his story from other sources.
Update: 02/08 17:19 GMT by KD : Jake writes in with an update: it seems that while Berenson did receive a misdirected e-mail from Pepper Hamilton, that e-mail did not contain a detailed description of the status of the Eli Lilly settlement talks. Berenson got his story from other sources.
This happens to me all the time! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:5, Interesting)
If the info was confidential it probably had a confidentiality notice at the bottom of it, stating that if you are not the intended recipient that you aren't allowed to do anything with the email. I saw one of those sig's today and started to wonder if that was legally binding in any way. Maybe we will find out now!
Very Nasty Stuff (Score:5, Interesting)
I was on this terrible crap for a while...after 2 weeks I had gained 15 pounds (not exaggerating).
I remember finding myself on the candy Isle at the supermarket shoveling 12-packs of twix, snickers, and all kinds of other candy into my shopping cart...and I usually don't eat sweets.
These 'medications' are really horrible...it's sad that so many people believe schizophrenia is easily treated with them. Big pharma marketdroids are mostly to blame. In fact, after 6 months, 80% of the people on these medications quit (I suspect the other 20% are forced to take it by hospital staff)...they actually prefer being crazy (unable to work, take care of themselves, go to public places, etc.) rather than take them...the side-effects are that bad.
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why was the address there? (Score:5, Interesting)
Why was the reporter's email address already in the lawyer's address book? They should check his mail logs and see what else he send to that person before.
Re:What about the disclaimer in the footer? (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.goldmark.org/jeff/stupid-disclaimers/ [goldmark.org]
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:3, Interesting)
If you're routinely dealing with communications that are sensitive, then you should be typing the full address in every time
Whole new use for Typosquatting.
Suddenly sjobs@aple.com, wbuffet@berksirehatheway.com, michael_dell@dall.com etc, etc, might have some additional value.
Or use lists that have been verified to be correct.
And how do you propose that? Run a completely separate mail identity for each case he works on, each with its own carefully vetted list of approved recipients? Nah, I can't see how that wouldn't be royally inconvenient and immune from errors.
What's funny is that the software ended up revealing a lot. Don't you find it interesting that one of the lawyers happened to have this reporter in their contact book?
Not particularly. Can you imagine a scenario where the reporter sent him an email at some point and he replied to it? Thats all it takes for the address to be added to the autocomplete feature. In some programs that's enough for the address to be added as a contact....
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:3, Interesting)
And while I'm sure most courts would agree with you, does that contract become void if sent to an incorrect party?
If a lawyer is upset at a ruling and leaks a confidential document to a newspaper intentionally, no amount of confidentiality disclaimers intended for the document's original target attached to the bottom of the document will stop the newspaper from running it.
I think the end point is that you can't force confidentiality on an unsuspecting party simply by sending them a piece of paper that says they are now legally bound, especially if you sent it unintentionally.
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:1, Interesting)
There is no exchange in merely putting a notice on the mail and hence no contract would exist.
It may be legally binding in some other way but not by virtue of it being a contract.
Re:Very Nasty Stuff (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:3, Interesting)
And how would the courts rule if the unintended recipient claimed to have only read the first two paragraphs? That might be all they need to get the crucial info, but how could they be held to a contract they never actually saw?
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:5, Interesting)
These types of court decisions would not, however, support a "prior restraint" such as a court order prohibiting the NYT from publishing the information, see, e.g., New York Times Co. v. United States [wikipedia.org] , 403 U.S. 713 [cornell.edu] (1971) (5-to-3 ruling prohibiting prior restraint and allowing NYT to print the top-secret "Pentagon Papers").
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:5, Interesting)
Hi Peter (not my name),
The amount for the chemistry building work is now confirmed as £85,000,000.00 exactly -- I've left a cheque on your desk, could you sign it please?
Cheers, Dave
Turns out that my relatively unusual surname is shared with the finance director at my university. For about a month I got a few of his emails, I assume because my first name is earlier in the alphabet.
Happened to me once... (Score:5, Interesting)
Except he misspelled his own email address, and the images started coming to me, a complete stranger.
I stitched all the shots together into this time-lapsed movie:
http://knodi.com/images/floral_park/time_lapse.gif [knodi.com]
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:4, Interesting)
Lawyers (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I take ten milligrams of Zyprexa every day (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Thanks (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally, I could almost say that Zyprexa saved my life. It did play a part. Last year, I was suffering from a clinical depression, which progressed into a psychotic depression. I was locked in the clutches of depression while getting more and more paranoid and delusional. Luckily enough I didn't progress to outright hallucinations, although my perception of reality was certainly distorted.
If nothing had been done, I would be dead now. It was only a matter of time before I'd have taken my own life.
Luckily, I got help. Spent two weeks in the hospital, being given Zyprexa and Atarax, the former as an antipsychotic, the latter as an antidepressant. After two weeks (when the antidepressants had kicked in) I was released, and continued with them for six months. Today, I'm competely back to normal.
Now, I can't really compare Zyprexa to other drugs; this is the only time I've had such an episode, and hopefully never again. But I can say that the drugs DO work. And work well.
And I'll also say that I've got no history of any mental disorders (or in my family). Most people consider me to be a very stable person, mentally and emotionally. Point is, while we don't all have the misfortune of having a chronic disorder, a psychotic episode can literally happen to anyone.
Re:auto-complete is at fault? (Score:5, Interesting)
I got a bounced mail from somebody at ibm. Every other address on the line was to "watson.ibm.com". Just not this one.
Long story short after about five of these over a few months I finally got a thing about secret nucular testing. I called them and explained what they did.
Never saw another one, ever.
I'm guessing somebody didn't get their xmas bonus that year.