---
title: "The One Time You Absolutely Do Not Want to Use Email Forwarding | DuoCircle"
description: "Email forwarding is so common place, most people don’t give it another thought."
image: "https://www.duocircle.com/images/og-default.png"
canonical: "https://www.duocircle.com/blog/email-forwarding/the-one-time-you-absolutely-do-not-want-to-use-email-forwarding/"
---

Quick Answer

Auto-forwarding email is routine but carries three real risks. (1) Copyright: every email is copyrighted by its author, and forwarding without permission can violate that, depending on volume and recipient. (2) Sensitive data leakage: forwarding rules silently push privileged content (legal, financial, HR, client data) to external addresses, which is a fiduciary problem for lawyers and a compliance problem for regulated industries. (3) Classified material: the absolute prohibition. Hillary Clinton's home server reportedly auto-forwarded State Department emails to a Gmail account registered to a Chinese company, exposing classified material to unknown parties. Defensive controls: disable user-defined external forwarding rules in Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, audit existing rules quarterly, and use a managed forwarding service for legitimate forwarding needs (alias-to-mailbox routing) so it isn't done from the user account.

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![Email Forwarding](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/08/smtp-providers-7658.jpg) 

Email forwarding is so common place, most people don’t give it another thought. But, as I pointed out in a recent [post](/email-forwarding/email-forwarding-easy-to-do-but-not-always-smart-to-do/#more-14029), _email forwarding isn’t always smart to do_.

In that post, I point out a handful of reasons why blindly forwarding emails **can get you into a little hot water**. First, there are the copyright issues. When someone writes an email, it is by definition, copyrighted. Depending on who you are forwarding it to, where and how often, you could be in violation of copyright law.

[![email forwarding](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/08/buy-smtp-8693.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/08/buy-smtp-8693.jpg)

_Then there’s the case of forwarding sensitive information_. If you aren’t sure if an email contains sensitive information, auto forwarding it can be a cause for concern. _This especially applies to lawyers and other fiduciaries who have a responsibility to protect client information_.

While these **email forwarding** faux pas can be understood if not condoned, they pale in comparison to what former Secretary of State [Hillary Clinton did](https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2019/08/15/newly-declassified-documents-show-hillarys-server-compromised-emails-forwarded-chinese-email-account/). According to recently declassified documents, “the FBI found in the metadata that every email sent and received on Clinton’s home brew server was being copied to an email address registered to a Chinese company named Carter Heavy Industries.”

She had an illegal email server and was knowingly or unknowingly forwarding classified State Department emails to a Chinese-related email account. Incredibly, it was a Gmail account so there’s no telling who actually had access to the emails.

[![email forwarding service](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/08/windows-smtp-service-7854.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/08/windows-smtp-service-7854.jpg)

_The one time you absolutely do not want to use email forwarding is when you’re in receipt of classified emails_. Assuming that’s not you, but you still need to forward emails, contact [DuoCircle](/). With the DuoCircle [email forwarding service](/email/email-forwarding) you can accept emails at one domain and forward them to another email account on another domain without needing to run your own mail server.

_You can create an unlimited number of email aliases and forward each alias to up to 10 other email addresses_. And email forwarding comes natively with [phishing protection](/email/phishing-protection), which keeps your forwarded emails free of viruses and spam. Try it risk free with a 30 day money back guarantee.

![Brad Slavin](https://media.mailhop.org/dmarcreport/images/team/brad-slavin.jpg) 

Brad Slavin 

General Manager

General Manager at DuoCircle. Product strategy and commercial lead across the email security portfolio.

## Secure your email infrastructure

Protect, authenticate, and deliver. Contact our team to find the right solution.

[Contact Sales](/contact/) [Explore Products](/products/) 

## Related Articles

[  Forwarding 1m  Alumni Email Forwarding Service  Nov 3, 2018 ](/blog/email-forwarding/alumni-email-forwarding-service/)[  Forwarding 2m  Email Forwarding: Easy to do but not Always Smart to do  Jul 30, 2019 ](/blog/email-forwarding/email-forwarding-easy-to-do-but-not-always-smart-to-do/)[  Forwarding 2m  Should you Forward that Email? Maybe not.  Sep 13, 2020 ](/blog/email-forwarding/should-you-forward-that-email-maybe-not/)

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