Email "repossessed" and deleted

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 4 Nov 2011 1:40 pm

My fiancee, until recently, was working on a TV show (we'll call it "89109") and received call sheets, emails, shooting schedules, crew lists, contacts, etc. electronically through a company called Scenechronize. For reasons unknon, unexplained and undivulged (some producer's bff/gf needed a gig) she was let go about three weeks ago.

Now all of a sudden all the months of emails etc. as noted above have disappeared !!off of her computer!! Her email is an earthlink address. She downloads these to her MacBookPro through the Apple Mail program. She tells me (I don't use the Mail program so I don't know its workings--i.e., are these saved on her HD or some "cloud" of Apple's?) that everything she has ever been sent regarding "89019" through Scenechronize has now disappeared off of her computer!

Is this legal? Is this even possible? Can this be anything but a hack and an illegal invasion of privacy?

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 4 Nov 2011 3:10 pm

If it's an IMAP email account (rather than a POP account) the messages will disappear from her computer when they're deleted off the server, unless she's made other arrangements. Could be the problem.

Have her look in User/Library/Mail (this is in the Finder), which will show all the email accounts, and see if the emails are there.

Cal Sharp · Post by **Cal Sharp** » 4 Nov 2011 3:26 pm

Another thought: She ought to be able to get those missing emails off her backup (Time Machine?) in the aforementioned folder.

Wiz Feinberg · Post by **Wiz Feinberg** » 4 Nov 2011 4:21 pm

If it is POP3 email, the answer depends on the Sync settings in the email client. Some people leave a copy on the server, others remove it from the server after downloading it to their computer. I think that IMAP email allows multiple users to download the same message, or delete it for all.

If the email client on the Apple computer is configured for the account in question to use IMAP and the people who sent those messages chose to delete them from the server, the same thing would occur on all computers that use the IMAP protocol, when they next synchronized their accounts.

Thus, if the above hypothesis is true, no hacking took place. Just an unfortunate syncing of deleted messages (delete from one end - delete from other end).

Aside from this possibility, it is extremely unlikely that the movie group would attempt to install a backdoor on an Apple computer, for the sole purpose of deleting email messages in the event a contract was terminated in the future.

Chris Dorch · Post by **Chris Dorch** » 6 Nov 2011 7:26 pm

The last and least likely possibility is that the messages were recalled (an email feature of Outlook/Exchange) by the sender(s).

Tis a mystery for sure...

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 7 Nov 2011 11:04 pm

I can't say I understand the technology at work here but at least there's a logical explanation. Thanks to all. (And after I posted the original question, we did determine that these emails had been backed up. It's also slightly perplexing dealing with some one who knows even less about computers than I do.)[/i][/i]