When do you NOT help?

05/18/2009 12:47:00 PM by Chris Toohey

I was contacted the other day by someone who came across my website -- specifically my Disabling $KeepPrivate documents! article -- who was looking for a method to add a Readers-type NotesItem to selected emails in his mail NotesDatabase. The issue that he was running into, he explained, was that his company prohibited personal Agents (and I suspect that each user only has Manager access to their mail NotesDatabase).

After explaining the potential issues with doing this - from the obvious "you could potentially lock yourself out" to the potential legal and corporate policy implications - I found out that he was concerned about his "nosey" boss reading his email.

Now, while I want this person to know that there are capabilities within the Lotus Notes client that will allow them to gain a richer experience and can improve the way that they perform their day-to-day functions, I don't want to condone such actions by me telling him how to do this.

And therein lies an issue: where do you draw the line?

I like to consider myself - at times - a Lotus White Hatter, but one person's White Hat can be another's Black Hatter. And in this particular case, I think the actions - at best - would be considered black hat, if not actionable!

So, Constant Reader, have you run into a similar situation?