Are e-mails deleted from Verizon servers?

[jeam]

Hi,

Please help to settle an argument: If I have Microsoft Outlook set to download e-mails sent to my verizon.net account, and then to have the e-mails removed (at least from my view) on the Verizon website as they get downloaded to Outlook, are the e-mails still available anywhere to someone, outside of my Outlook folder? Specifically, do copies of the e-mails that I receive into Outlook still reside on a Verizon or anybody else's server?

Thanks very much.

[JDoe5]

In theory, email is "store and forward" until it reaches its destination and if you have an email client delete emails from the server after they have been downloaded then there should be no copies.  However in these post 9/11 and Patriot Act days, one can not be too sure.

[jeam]

Ahh, nobody had thought of that. That's a new angle. We were talking in terms of hackers and such being able to go into people's e-mails to get personal information.

Thanks very much.

[JDoe5]

In regards to hacking and hacktevism...

Webmail accounts are a vulnerability.  If you are a public official or have a high profile then that person had better use a Strong Password to protect the email on the Webmail server.  The better option is an email client that pulls email from the server often leaving nothing thre.

If you are NOT a public official or have a high profile then the reason a Webmail account may be hacked (compromised) is to harvest an address book for spamming and using the account to generate spam.  Rarely, but still possible, will the contents of the email be investigated for use.

Today we are not seeing malicious activity for "Bragging Rights".  The motives are monetary gains through direct and indirect acquisition.  So the average individual's email has a very low appeal as there is no monetary gain in their email contents.  That changes for public officials or those have a high profile like screen actors.  Then there can be a profit in the email contents.