Claire Swire: Everyone remembers but few have changed their ways

More than six months after Claire Swire and Bradley Chait shot to fame with their X-rated email conversation, their story still looms large in the public mind, but few people have changed their email behaviour.

Almost two thirds of silicon.com readers who responded to our Digital Blunders survey remember the Claire Swire incident, whose reminiscences of a 'sex act' (to use the tabloid jargon of the time) caused a national sensation last December.

Few people have learned the lesson of the poor girl whose email confession was sent to an estimated 10 million people.

Swire was disciplined for her part in the email conversation, which originated from her work email address. Her boyfriend, Chait, and his colleagues who forwarded the email were severely reprimanded by their employer, a law firm.

Even unconnected people got into trouble over the message. Staff who forwarded the message at the Financial Services Authority were suspended and lost their bonuses.

Though the mail highlighted the risk of suspensions and sackings for forwarding inappropriate messages, 33 per cent of silicon.com readers said it hadn't affected their thinking at all.

Over a quarter of respondents said it had made them think twice about what they put in their emails, but only three per cent of silicon.com readers said their company had acknowledged the incident and set up a proper email policy as a result.

To visit silicon.com's Digital Blunders site and find out just how wrong you can go with a simple email, visit http://www.silicon.com/goto-Digital-news where you will find stories like this man's:

"When I was getting divorced, my now ex-wife sent me an email telling me she couldn't afford to live in our flat and therefore wanted me to buy her out. I forwarded this to a mate, adding the comment: "Fantastic, the flat is going to turn into a Grade A bachelor pad, let's start pulling cheap sluts," and unfortunately copied her in the reply."

For more email confessions, visit http://www.silicon.com/goto-Digital-news