Email to activity processing: New feature to make the creation of new contacts "optional"
User story:
- As an administrator
- When filing inbound emails
- I would like to configure whether CiviCRM will create a new contact where a contact does not already exist within the system
- So that I can ensure that new contacts are not created in the system when filing an email.
- In the situation of a case email where the email has a valid Case ID or Case token in the subject line the email should still be filed to a case, even if no contacts are matched.
How it works currently:
Currently, when CiviCRM performs email to activity processing, Civi will search CiviCRM for a contact with the relevant email address in the From / To / CC fields and then assign the created activity accordingly.
When CiviCRM cannot find a contact with a relevant email address, it simply creates a new "stub" contact with the email address.
The problem
For multiple reasons this is might not be desirable behaviour:
This is a security risk, as in most cases CiviCRM email-activity processing works off a mailbox, that might need to be public. As such it is possible that an unscrupulous third party may chose to spam your mailbox and thus spam your CRM with unwanted emails and content. Whilst this can be mitigated by having your automated filing on a separate mailbox, it might be preferable to simply only file the emails for contacts who already exist in your system, and to selectively add the rest.
Also, from a GDPR perspective it may not be desirable to hold the details of the persons who sent an email, whilst the contents of the email might be important (i.e. the attachments) especially in a casework context.
Proposed solution:
Add an additional option to the email to activity processing configurations (civicrm/admin/mailSettings?action=add&reset=1)
- When "Used For?" = Email to activity processing
- Show an additional option:
- "Do not create new contacts when filing emails"
- Checkbox
- Default null
- Help:
- If this option is enabled, CiviCRM will not create new contacts when filing emails.
- The email should also always be filed as an activity.
If checked:
- When CiviCRM checks for a matching contact, if no matching contact is found it will not create one and the email is skipped
- unless the email has a valid Case ID or Case token in the subject line, in which it will still be filed against the case, but no contacts will be linked to the email.