Can you access email via icloud and delete?

JustAnotherSaver

I have a works iPhone - as in an iPhone provided by my employer for work.

I raised a H&S concern and did this via the address they provided me - which is an icloud address. I don't have the password for this account.

Due to one or two things that's gone on, I BCCd my own private email address as it was quite a serious email because in the event that anything happened, I would always have that email.

I needed to call on that email 12 months on. I searched and searched and couldn't find it.

I went to my own personal address and there it was, so now i had a date.

I went back to my works sent folder and looked all around that date. There's plenty of emails sent that day but that certainly isn't one of them.

It's also not something i would accidentally or purposely delete. I don't go in to my Sent folder really as I don't need to.

The employer will have the password. I don't know what other managers will have access to it. Maybe or maybe not more than the employer.

As an iPhone user I never really used iCloud and i've been an Android user for a while now so only use an iPhone for work. Could they have gone in and deleted this email or could that only be done on the phone itself?

Neil_Jones

Clue is in the name - iCloud.  Stored online.  Works in the same way as any other cloud storage or email solution.  Web based access is available.

If this is a works phone and work set the device up with passwords for the email and you don't know what it is or what it has ever been, then logic dictates somebody (presumably management/supervisor) has gone in.  If you do not have any option to set an email password or a log-in password then its probably safe to assume others on that level know it.

JustAnotherSaver

Thanks.

If i had to put money on it then I would say only top level has done that. They may have had a request for it put to them by HR but it'll be the top-top that will have done it i would've thought.

Good job BCC is a nice feature in that case.

Sandtree

I'm more confused as to why a company thats big enough to provide its employees with iPhones would be using an @icloud.com email address for anything?

In most work situations your employer would be running its own mail server, Exchange being most corporations choice, either physically or in the cloud. As such they as an organisation can see all emails going in and out and access all mailboxes on their server. This is clearly necessary to ensure employees arent accidentally or intentionally causing data breaches, comply with requests from regulators, police etc. 

For an actual person to go in and actually read your emails is a bit of a messy area of law and companies through contracts, HR/IT policies etc trying to ensure they have the right to do so but because it is messy the ability to do so is normally governed by a process and those capable of doing so is normally limited. 

You however presumably raised this H&S matter internally and therefore if someone did want to delete that email from your sent folder they'd have enough information from the internal recipient to be able to do so without physically reading your emails and therefore avoid the messy aspects of the law. This is a technical task to do and therefore the ability to physically do it would normally be limited to IT

To the best of my knowledge iCloud.com doesnt offer any corporate email solutions. If your company is actually small with basic IT such as using @icloud.com email addresses then they wont have the benefit of direct access to the server etc but clearly they would have your password given they set up your account and phone but you dont have the password. If its not icloud.com and actually via the likes of Exchange then access is normally controlled by other mechanisms and they wont have your password.

JustAnotherSaver

The mojority of them have @companyname email addresses.
I and maybe only 1 other were given @icloud.

As for the why to that, I've no idea. I didn't ask. 

Neil_Jones

The default on most Apple devices is to get icloud addresses.  It may have been an oversight on the part of IT when they were set up, either that or an official variation of your name wasn't available - ie you couldn't have fred.flintstone@bedrock.com for example because that was already allocated to somebody else called Fred Flintstone. Different companies have different ways of dealing with this, the bigger an organisation gets the more likely it becomes they'll employ people with the same name, so they'll either stick a number in the first name, use a middle initial or some other method to make a unique address.  That may be why you got the iCloud address.

Jenni_D

Just to note ... if they did go in and read the sent email before deleting it, they'll probably know it was BCCd to your personal email address. (Your action in BCCing to your personal email address may have been a breach of company rules/policies, and so they could see it as a disciplinary offence. Whether they will or not is a different matter).

Sandtree

Neil_Jones said:

 That may be why you got the iCloud address.

Giving an iCloud address isnt just having a different domain though but everything will be going through different infrastructure and outside of the control of the company... its a very odd thing.

Most recent client's email addresses are Surname@company.com and duplicated in the first instance are dealt with as SurnameFirstIniitial@company.com. Very odd and people always double check when you give the email address out that they havent missed heard you or such.

JustAnotherSaver

Jenni_D said:

Just to note ... if they did go in and read the sent email before deleting it, they'll probably know it was BCCd to your personal email address. (Your action in BCCing to your personal email address may have been a breach of company rules/policies, and so they could see it as a disciplinary offence. Whether they will or not is a different matter).

True. 
The only way around that then is to email direct from my own personal email.