Advances in technology, especially over the last decade, have made communication with business peers, friends or even strangers as easy, literally, as the push of a button. But this convergence of computers and telecommunications technology has not been without its drawbacks. Businesses worldwide are quickly discovering that ease of communication is only beneficial if the messages being sent don’t come back to haunt them.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, widely considered the father of the information age, discovered that home truth when mail sent electronically by him and other members of his organisation was introduced as evidence in the recent suit brought by the United States Justice Department. The messages in those e-mails went some way toward assisting the Justice Department to make its case in the Microsoft anti trust litigation that the company’s Internet Explorer web browser is so integrally built into the Windows operating system that it can’t be removed.
