UID and email ID

Even before approaching Registrar of Companies (ROC), a start-up checks availability of some domain names. The choices to name the new company are influenced by the domain name. On registering, the company selects an Internet Service Provider (ISP), including mail box service.

Induction of a new employee includes assigning a company mail ID to him or her. The employee uses only the official mail ID to correspond with the world on matters related with the work. Many companies block access to private mail IDs from the company network. If an employee quits, the system administrator promptly deletes the employee’s mail ID. This discipline applies to the promoters and directors of the company as well.

If one uses private mail ID for official correspondence, the organisation has no control over the flow of information and the storage location. A person using private mail ID can carry all the company matters with him beyond his service too. Also, because most of the private mail services are free, there is no control over the access to the flow of information and we are not sure of the security of vital information.

Using an official mail ID also identifies one as a member of the organisation. I feel more comfortable sending mails to official mail IDs and not to private ones.

Many of our government officers from various departments freely use private mail IDs in their official capacity. I sent mails to some of them expressing my concern. No response, including one from UIDAI. It is vital that people in government offices use only official email IDs for official matters considering the sensitivity of information flow and seriousness of work.

See UIDAI website http://www.uidai.gov.in/contactus.html. It shows nine departments and the email IDs where 65% of the mail IDs are private, gmail taking the lion’s share:

gmail.com: 46; uidai.gov.in: 25; nic.in: 6; yahoo.co.in: 4; yahoo.com: 2; Hotmail: 2; rediffmail.com:  1; outlook.com:  1

 While heading Infosys, Mr. Nandan Nilekani would not have accepted an employee using anything other than @infosys.com as email ID. Now he himself does not use @uidai.gov.in. An organisation with a mission to give unique IDs to more than a billion people is does not manage unique mail ID for itself.