9.3.2 Confidential mail

Incoming mail can be marked as confidential. Personalized confidential mail can only be viewed and processed by the defined contact person. If no specific contact person is defined, confidential mail can instead be delegated to a department or team to ensure efficient processing.

Revocation of confidential mail status

Confidentially marked mail can be removed in exceptional cases by the portal administrator and the EPO administrator (app administrator):

• Portal administrator/app administrator wants to open mail marked as confidential.
• The message “This access will be logged and the audit will be notified” appears as a security prompt.
• Portal administrator/app administrator confirms this security query. The audit department is informed of the suspension and the process is logged in the system. The status is set from “Confidential” to “New”.

Note: According to Article 10 of the German Basic Law (GG), the secrecy of correspondence is inviolable, whereby the unauthorized opening and unauthorized knowledge of a letter or other document can lead to a fine or imprisonment of one year according to § 202 of the German Criminal Code (StGB). The mere opening of the letter or another document is sufficient to violate § 202 StGB.

Recommendation: Precisely define company rules for handling mail/messages.