Throughout the years email has become one of our most readily used forms of communication. You cannot buy something online, register a product, or even leave a store without someone asking you for your email address. In fact, we use it so often we can become desensitized to its true purpose and desired intention.
The objective for your email account should differ widely depending on whether it is your University account or your personal account. As a best practice, your University account should be regarded as work-related and reserved for what it has been truly designed for: University business. Use your personal account for everything else such as personal communications, coupons, purchase confirmations, product registries and updates, and so forth.
Here are few reasons why it is essential to compartmentalize your private and professional electronic communications:
It enhances your security consciousness. If you do not offer your University email address to financial organizations (such as your bank or PayPal) you can be certain that the emails you receive through your University inbox claiming to be from one of these entities is truly a phishing attempt. The best approach with phishing is to simply delete the message. If you would like to report it, you may send it to abuse@missouri.edu. When reporting phishing, please send the original email as an attachment by dragging and dropping it into a new message box.
Your University email account maybe more secure if you are using it for professional use only. You should not use your University account for non-work related website registrations. Registering your information with various sites can be risky as some sites are less secure than others. If your personal account becomes compromised due to insecurities, the integrity of your University account will remain intact. Note: you should have different passwords for each of your accounts and each site you access!
It improves your productivity and helps you stay organized. Personal emails or spam can interfere with your work and increase the likelihood of important work-related emails getting over looked or lost within the mix. Separate email accounts grants you the opportunity to direct non-work items to your other email account making it easier for you to stay on task while at work.
There are legal obligations regarding the accessibility of your sent/received email. There may be a legal need to review University communications in which case your email communications may be made available. Most people would prefer their personal communications not be scrutinized or reviewed as part of this process, thus even more incentive to have separate professional and personal email accounts.
The University’s spam filtering tools may block certain inbound emails. The University employs spam filtering tools in an effort to reduce unwanted inbound email. The University will accept requests for email address exceptions (this is known as whitelisting); however, the requestor must be able to provide legitimate cause for this exception. Whitelisting requests that do not pertain to University business may be declined.