An email address as a record. What it says and what it does not

G.002Sources04 CollectionLab's own initiative

An address in a public document is a source, not evidence. Covered here: what can lawfully be read from it, how it is recorded, and what belongs to the subject of the work.

The structure of a corporate address, the public signals it provides, and the boundary of permissible verification.

An email address is a frequent starting point of an investigation: it appears in a registry extract, in tender documents, in the contact details on an organisation's site, in the signature under a press release. Below is what can be read from an address, how it is recorded, and what must not be done with it.

What can be read from an address

The domain. The part after "@" names the organisation or the mail provider. An organisation's domain leads to its registry entries, to the history of the domain's registration, to other addresses on it in public documents.
The mail server. The domain's MX records show who serves the mail: a server of its own or a provider. That is a fact about the organisation's infrastructure, and it is public by the design of the protocol.
The format. "name.surname@", "initial+surname@", "department@". The format is the organisation's convention, and it is used to check whether an address from another document belongs to the organisation.
First appearance. The date from which the address occurs in public documents and archived pages. That is the date of the source, and it does not give the date the address was created.
The role. A department address ("tenders@", "press@") names a function and does not name a person.

What an address does not say

Who is behind it. An address is a channel. "name.surname@organisation" confirms that a channel with that name exists, but does not confirm that a person of that name uses it.
That the address was active. The presence of an address in a document does not mean the channel was active on the date of the document.
Anything beyond the public. The contents of a mailbox, passwords, login history, devices do not belong to the subject of the work under any commission.

How it is recorded

The address is a record of type "channel". The record has a source: the document in which the address appears, and the date of access to it.
The relation "belongs to" is drawn with a basis. The basis is a public document in which the address is given in the name of the organisation or an office. An address on a third-party site does not serve as a basis.
A match of format is a presumption. An address that fits the organisation's format but is not found in its documents is recorded as a presumption and drawn differently from a confirmed relation.
One address, one record. Five documents with one address give one channel record and five sources under it.
Verification takes the form of a task. "Is the address active on date X" remains an open question until there is a document with the answer.

Subject of the work

Public capacity. In scope are addresses given in the name of an organisation or an office in public documents.
Open sources. An address is taken from the document or page where it is published, with the source and the date of access.
Reading the sources. An address is studied through the documents in which it appears.
Contact. A message to an address is sent openly and in the name of the organisation, and it is recorded as an approach with its date and text.

Why

An organisation's address leads to a person in their public role. A record stays in scope while its subject is that role.

This is the organisation's rule, and it is the same for every investigation.