Policy management is currently built into the Microsoft Office suite of business applications, in the form of Information Rights Management (IRM). Unfortunately, IRM attempts to function within the limited framework of the Microsoft Office system and can be circumvented by an experienced user.
The policy management for email works only within the Microsoft Outlook program. For instance, a user can set a “no forwarding” policy on an email, but if a recipient is using a differently client, (e.g. Thunderbird, Lotus Notes or a web-based client like Gmail), the policy is not upheld.
email2 uses a centralized, mutually trusted server to ensure that policies are always upheld for a specific Private Email Network. However, existing policy systems, such as Information Rights Management (IRM) and Digital Rights Management (DRM) are not affected by email2: they still work exactly as they did with basic email. email2 allows the sender to control a message for its entire life cycle. The unique email2 architecture empowers the sender to limit reply and forward permissions on their Private Email Network, set an expiry date for an email2 message, even recall an email2 message at any point.
The email2 pre-emptive policy control allows keyword filtering of all messages before they are sent. Policy control takes place dynamically – before the user presses send, even. This is drastically different, (and more effective), than solutions which rely on ad-hoc parsing or outgoing message filters.