Do you ever wonder where the email attachments will go after you click the send button? Mistakes of sending wrong documents to the intended recipients are common, and you may be worried about how you can reverse the situation. In some cases, you may be worried about the security of your attachments if your email is not encrypted. Many things can come to your mind after sending an email with confidential information. Read on to get an insight into what happens to your email attachments after you hit the send button.
Encrypt Your Email
Your email and the attachments are inseparable, and they live together. When dealing with ordinary email, you should know that you lose control of the email once you send it from your mailbox. However, with the constant technological advancements currently taking place in this modern world, it is possible to control your email together with your attachment right to the receiver’s mailbox. If you are worried about your document’s security, you can encrypt them using a special program that permits both the sender and receiver to modify them. If you are not authorized, you cannot access the email attachment meaning that it is safe in the receiver’s hands if they do not deliberately share it with other people.
Get a Tracking Application
Your attachments are inseparable from the main email. In other words, once you click the send button, the two will always move and stay together. With the right app, you can track both your email and its attachments. In case you are worried about accidentally sending the wrong file, you need not worry as you can swap it or make changes even after you have clicked the send button. Expert developers at CirrusInsight.com explain that the attachment tracking app helps to protect your files and you can also set an expiry date for the documents. You can also prevent access to your files to ensure they do not end up in the wrong hands.
Another notable aspect of the attachment tracking app is that it allows the user to unsend or edit the sent emails together with their attachments even long after the recipient has opened them. The application also gives you notifications to see when the receiver opened your email. This app mainly works with Google’s Gmail and Microsoft Outlook, and it gives you the ability to remove email attachments after you have already sent them. However, you need to keep in mind that the app would not erase the email from existence. You can only request it to remove the parts that you want to be removed, but the email stays the same.
How Long Does an Email Stay in a Server?
One can often wonder how long an email sticks around in a server after you’ve pressed the send button. A specific program automatically downloads an email to your PC when you open it. You can download the attachment manually and save it on your PC, and delete it any time in the future. It is worth noting that the email service providers like Yahoo, Gmail, and others have servers where all emails pass through before they are directed to the intended recipients. However, copies of the original mails can remain in the email service providers’ servers for an indefinite amount of time unless someone deletes them.
Deleting Your Email Account
As you are now aware, you lose control over an email together with the attachments that you send from your mailbox if it is not protected or encrypted. Therefore, you need to understand that deleting your email account does not impact the sent mail and the attachments. An email passes through different servers, and once it leaves your email provider’s server, the process is pretty much irreversible. As soon as you hit the “Send” button, the email and its contents also go out of your control. Deleting your account does not solve anything apart from just inconveniencing yourself. Instead of deleting your account, you can modify or delete unwanted content from your sent mail.
When you send an email with an attachment, it passes through different servers until it reaches the final destination. Though there are multiple stages that an email passes through, it is one of the fastest and convenient methods of communication and exchange of data. If you are concerned about the attachments that you send with emails, consider the option of encrypting the message. This method prevents any unauthorized people from accessing your email. Alternatively, get a special app that gives you control of your email, unlike in the past. With the right app, you can track your email, make changes to the attachment, and control whether the receiver can edit or print the attached document.