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Overview of Disclaimers

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 includes the ability to add text disclaimers to e-mail messages that are processed on a computer that has the Hub Transport server role installed. Disclaimers are typically used to provide legal information, warnings about unknown or unverified e-mail senders, or for various other reasons as determined by an organization. The following notice is an example of an e-mail disclaimer:

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail message is intended to be received only by persons entitled to receive the confidential information it may contain. E-mail messages to clients of Contoso may contain information that is confidential and legally privileged. Please do not read, copy, forward, or store this message unless you are an intended recipient of it. If you have received this message in error, please forward it to the sender and delete it completely from your computer system.

For more information about how to create a new disclaimer, see How to Configure a Disclaimer.

Targeting Disclaimers

Exchange 2007 lets the administrator target disclaimers based on conditions and exceptions that are defined on transport rules that are configured on a computer that has the Hub Transport server role installed. Transport rules give you the flexibility to target specific disclaimers that depend on the business need. For more information about transport rules, see Overview of Transport Rules.

The following conditions are examples of business conditions that might require that you use unique disclaimers:

  • Legal requirements that may be different in various countries or regions.

  • Different languages.

  • Business or regulatory requirements that may be different in multiple regions.

  • Potentially unsafe e-mail messages that are sent to internal users.

Customizing Disclaimers

When you create a disclaimer, you can modify the appearance, position, and behavior of the disclaimer. You can specify the following attributes:

  • The disclaimer text.

  • The color, size, and font of the disclaimer text.

  • The placement of the disclaimer in the message body.

  • The behavior of the disclaimer with messages that the disclaimer can't be applied to directly.

  • The use of a separator between the disclaimer and the message body.

Disclaimer Text

The disclaimer text is the text that is inserted into a message. Exchange 2007 inserts disclaimers into e-mail messages by using the same message format as the original message. For example, if a message is created in HTML, the disclaimer is added in HTML.

Disclaimer Font, Size, and Color

Exchange gives you several choices to customize the appearance of your disclaimer to meet your specific needs. You can specify the following font attributes to your disclaimer:

  • Font   The fonts available are Arial, CourierNew, or Verdana.

  • Font size   You can select one of following font sizes: Smallest, Smaller, Normal, Larger, or Largest.

  • Font Color   You can select one of the following font colors: Black, Blue, Fuchsia, Gray, Green, Lime, Maroon, Navy, Olive, Purple, Red, Silver, Teal, White, or Yellow.

By default, in HTML or Rich Text messages, disclaimers are created by using Gray ``Arial font with a size of Smallest.

Placement of the Disclaimer

When you add a disclaimer to a message, Exchange lets you decide whether to prepend or append the disclaimer to the message. When you prepend the disclaimer to the message, the disclaimer is inserted before the text of the newest message. When you append the disclaimer to the message, the disclaimer is inserted at the bottom of the message thread. Exchange doesn't check to see whether previous disclaimers have been added.

Behavior of the Disclaimer with Messages That Can't Be Modified

Some messages, such as encrypted messages, prevent Exchange from modifying the content of the original message. Exchange enables you to control how your organization handles these messages. When you create a new disclaimer, you can decide whether to wrap a message that can't be modified in a message envelope that contains the disclaimer, reject the message if a disclaimer can't be added, or let the message continue without a disclaimer.

The following list shows each fallback action and its description:

  • Wrap   If the disclaimer can't be inserted into the original message, Exchange encloses, or "wraps," the original message in a new message envelope. Then the disclaimer is inserted into the new message.

    Important

    If an original message is wrapped in a new message envelope, subsequent transport rules are applied to the new message envelope, not to the original message. Therefore, you must configure transport rules with disclaimer actions that wrap original messages in a new message body after you configure other transport rules.

    Note

    If the original message can't be wrapped in a new message envelope, the original message is not delivered. The sender of the message receives a non-delivery report (NDR) that explains why the message was not delivered.

  • Ignore   If the disclaimer can't be inserted into the original message, Exchange lets the original message continue unmodified. No disclaimer is added.

  • Reject   If the disclaimer can't be inserted into the original message, Exchange doesn't deliver the message. The sender of the message receives an NDR that explains why the message wasn't delivered.

Including a Disclaimer Separator

You may want to clearly identify where a disclaimer starts or ends and where the original message content starts or ends. You can specify whether you want to insert a separator line between the disclaimer and the original message content. Exchange automatically positions the separator line based on whether the disclaimer is prepended or appended to the message.

Using Exchange Hosted Services

Transport messaging policies are enhanced by or are also available as a service from Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services. Exchange Hosted Services is a set of four distinct hosted services:

  • Hosted Filtering, which helps organizations protect themselves from e-mail-borne malware

  • Hosted Archive, which helps them satisfy retention requirements for compliance

  • Hosted Encryption, which helps them encrypt data to preserve confidentiality

  • Hosted Continuity, which helps them preserve access to e-mail during and after emergency situations

These services integrate with any on-premise Exchange servers that are managed in-house or Hosted Exchange e-mail services that are offered through service providers. For more information about Exchange Hosted Services, see Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services.

For More Information

For more information, see the following topics: