Confidentiality email disclaimer examples you can copy
An email disclaimer is a line or two of small print under your signature, most often saying the email is confidential and what to do if it reached the wrong person. Copy one of the examples below, put in your company’s name, and add it under your signature. Keep it short, since it goes out with every email.
Checked against its sources on October 23, 2026.
Email disclaimer examples
Copy one and put your own names where the brackets are. Most people need one, two at most.
Confidentiality
- This email and any attachments are confidential and meant only for the person or company it is addressed to. If it reached you by mistake, please tell the sender and delete it, and don’t copy, share or act on it.
- Confidential. If this reached you by mistake, please let me know and delete it.
Not an offer or a contract
- Nothing in this email is a binding offer or agreement unless it says so and is signed by someone authorized to act for [Company].
Health information (HIPAA)
- This email may contain protected health information. If you are not the intended recipient, please tell the sender and delete it. Don’t read, forward or use it.
Legal privilege
- This email may be protected by attorney-client privilege. If you received it by mistake, please tell the sender and delete it. We don’t intend to waive any privilege by sending it to the wrong person.
A line like this won’t create privilege for a message that wasn’t written to seek or give legal advice, as Simons Muirhead & Burton’s 2008 article points out.
Financial information
- This email is for information only. It is not investment advice or an offer to buy or sell any security.
Attachments
- We check our email for viruses, but please check attachments before you open them.
UK company details
- [Company] Ltd. Registered in England and Wales, company number [number]. Registered office: [address].
How it looks under a signature
esigna’s Disclaimer block sets it in small grey type under everything else.
That’s esigna’s Disclaimer block under Ledger, one of the free templates, with a Space block above it. The block sets your text at 10 pixels in grey, below everything else in the signature.
How to add a disclaimer to your signature
In esigna, the disclaimer is a block of its own, already set in small grey type.
- Open your signature in esigna, or make one. It’s free.
- Press Esc, or click outside the signature, so no block is selected. New blocks then go at the end.
- Choose Add, or press /, and pick Space, under Layout, to leave a little room above the small print.
- Choose Add again and pick Disclaimer, under Text. It opens for typing: select its sample sentence and paste your disclaimer over it.
- Choose Copy signature and paste it into your email app.
Charter, Counsel and Practice, three of the Professional templates, already end with a confidentiality line. Select it and paste yours over it.
The pasting steps for each app are in the guides for Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail and iPhone.
Where it goes and how long it should be
Put it last, under your name, details and any banner. It goes out with every email you send, replies included, so one or two sentences is plenty.
If one message is confidential, say so in its subject line or first line too, where it’s read before the rest.
A 2008 article by the UK law firm Simons Muirhead & Burton, which warns that the law may have changed since, makes the same point about small print: a notice in small type, or at the end where it’s seen only once the message has been read, may not work. It recommends a clear and prominent statement.
What a disclaimer can and can’t do
A notice under an email carries less legal weight than its wording suggests. The same article says UK courts normally give more weight to what the email says than to the notice under it. It calls a disclaimer’s effect in court doubtful, though it may help in negotiations.
A line saying the email isn’t a contract can lose to the email itself. In a Scottish case, Baillie Estates v Du Pont, the court found a contract had been made despite a standard disclaimer.
Wikipedia’s article on email disclaimers notes that a notice has no binding effect on someone who gets your email by mistake and has no confidentiality agreement with you. It can still ask that person to tell you and delete the email.
On health information in the US, the Department of Health and Human Services says providers may email patients if they take reasonable safeguards, such as checking the address before sending and limiting what an unencrypted email says. Its answer doesn’t mention disclaimers.
None of this is legal advice. If your work has rules about email, ask your lawyer or your industry’s regulator.
UK company details on business emails
In the UK, a company’s business letters, order forms and website must show its registered name, the part of the UK it’s registered in, its registered number and its registered office address. The regulations count a document in electronic form the same as one on paper, so a business letter sent by email needs them too.
The last example above is set out for this. Fill in your own details from Companies House.
Free
Make a signature with a disclaimer under it
Pick a template in esigna’s free Editor, add your details and a Disclaimer block, and copy it into Gmail, Outlook or Apple Mail. You don’t need an account to start.
FAQ
Common questions
Is an email disclaimer legally binding?
Not reliably. A 2008 article by the UK firm Simons Muirhead & Burton says UK courts give more weight to what an email says than to the notice under it, and Wikipedia’s article notes that a notice doesn’t bind someone who gets the email by mistake. It can still ask that person to delete it.
Do I need a HIPAA disclaimer on my emails?
HHS’s guidance on emailing patients names safeguards, like checking the address before sending and limiting what an unencrypted email says. It doesn’t mention disclaimers. A notice can ask a wrong recipient to delete the email, but the safeguards are what HHS asks for.
Where should an email disclaimer go?
Under everything else in your signature, in small type. If one email is confidential, say so in its subject or first line too, where it’s read before the rest.
How long should an email disclaimer be?
One or two sentences. It goes out with every email you send, replies included, so keep it to what you need.
Can I put a disclaimer on only some of my emails?
Yes. Make two signatures in esigna, one with the Disclaimer block and one without, and add both to your email app. Gmail lets you choose a different signature in each email you write, with Insert signature at the bottom of the window.
What does a UK company have to show in its emails?
Its registered name, the part of the UK it’s registered in, its registered number and its registered office address. The rules ask for them on business letters, and count electronic ones the same as paper.
Sources
The facts on this page come from these pages, read on October 23, 2026. If a menu or a rule has changed since, go by them.