A family member has just sent you an e-mail message that contains highly personal details abouta family matter. The message was sent to your company e-mail address. The family member hasrequested…

The correct answer is A. Because your employer has the right to read your e-mail. Option A is correct because in most countries, company email systems are owned and monitored by the employer, meaning your employer has the legal right to read any message sent to or from your work email address - there is no expectation of privacy on a corporate email account…

Cybersecurity and IT Ethics

Question

A family member has just sent you an e-mail message that contains highly personal details abouta family matter. The message was sent to your company e-mail address. The family member hasrequested that you respond with your ideas about how to resolve the situation. Which of thefollowing is a reason for you to call your family member and discuss the matter over the phoneinstead?

Options

ABecause your employer has the right to read your e-mail
BBecause e-mail is completely private but not personal enough
CBecause it is illegal to use company e-mail for personal use
DBecause an e-mail message about a personal family matter will violate netiquette

How the community answered

(48 responses)

A
90% (43)
B
6% (3)
C
2% (1)
D
2% (1)

Explanation

Option A is correct because in most countries, company email systems are owned and monitored by the employer, meaning your employer has the legal right to read any message sent to or from your work email address - there is no expectation of privacy on a corporate email account. This makes a company inbox an inappropriate channel for sensitive personal or family communications, so a phone call is the safer alternative.

Why the distractors are wrong:

B is false - email is not completely private, especially on a work account; privacy, not personalization, is the issue.
C is incorrect - using company email for personal messages may violate company policy, but it is generally not illegal by law.
D is a distortion - netiquette refers to online etiquette norms, not the privacy risk that actually drives the correct answer here.

Memory tip: Think of company email as a postcard, not a sealed letter - your employer (the postal carrier) can read anything written on it. When the content is private, switch to your own "sealed" channel (phone or personal email).

Topics

#email privacy#workplace policy#professional ethics#employer rights

Community Discussion

Nina C.Jun 24, 2026

Good catch on this one. The answer is A, because your employer legally owns the company email system and has the right to monitor or read anything sent through it, so a highly personal family matter is not something you want going through those servers.

Mei-Ling H.Jun 26, 2026

Good point, and I would add that on the exam they sometimes test the flip side too, which is that the employee has no reasonable expectation of privacy on that system, so knowing both angles helps if they reword the question.

Mei-Ling H.Jun 22, 2026

I almost picked D because I thought the netiquette angle was the point, but then I noticed the question says "company e-mail address" and asks for a reason to go private, so the real issue is that your employer legally owns that inbox and can read anything in it, which is exactly why you would not want highly personal family details sitting in there.

Quincy P.Jun 22, 2026

Mei-Ling nailed the ownership angle, and the complementary point is that even if your employer never looks, that data still rides company mail servers and potentially company backups, widening the exposure surface beyond just the inbox itself.

Quincy P.Jun 26, 2026

A is right, company e-mail is monitored and management can read it legally.

Grace U.Jun 28, 2026

Worth adding that the same reduced expectation of privacy extends to any company-owned device or network traffic, not just email, so if a question widens the scenario that way, the same reasoning still holds.

Luis F.Jun 26, 2026

I almost picked D but A is the key, your boss can legally read that.

Quincy P.Jun 28, 2026

Correct call, Luis, and the legal-read point ties directly back to why employees should treat company email as a zero-privacy zone, same as if they typed it on a whiteboard in the lobby.

Grace U.Jun 26, 2026

That one tripped me up for a second on my own exam, and I remember sitting back and thinking about it practically rather than technically. The key thing to hold onto is that your company email account belongs to your employer, full stop, and that means anything you send or receive through it can be read by IT staff or management without warning or permission from you. Option A is the right call because it speaks directly to that ownership and monitoring reality, not to some vague idea about formality or feelings. The others fall apart quickly once you poke at them, since using company email for personal messages is not automatically illegal in most places, and netiquette has nothing to do with why sensitive family information could end up in the wrong hands. When I hit this question I had almost circled B out of habit because I was thinking about how email can feel cold compared to a phone call, but that is the distractor doing its job. The exam is not asking about tone or etiquette, it is asking about a concrete privacy and policy risk. Once I reminded myself to read for the technical and legal angle rather than the social one, A was the only answer that held up, and I moved on with confidence.

Full 1D0-61A Practice