Can I forward Flocknote emails? What are tokenized links?
First things first: we don't recommend forwarding emails that you receive from Flocknote.*
The reason we don't recommend this is because of link tokenization. What's that? Well, Flocknote emails contain special links that are unique for each individual. In any Flocknote email, a recipient will find buttons down at the bottom labeled My Info, Unsubscribe, and (if public comments are allowed) Reply. These buttons are tokenized to each specific recipient, meaning that they're able, with a single click, to take an action on their own Flocknote profile, whether it's adjusting their preferences, opting-out, or leaving a response – all without needing a password!
That's one element that makes Flocknote so effective. Therefore, if a member receives an email from Flocknote, that email is specifically for that member.
Is this a security issue?
Some admins can be concerned that this presents a privacy and/or security issue, but rest assured it is not. Here's why:
- Admins who forward an email are still covered. An admin must be fully logged in (either via password or a secure login link) in order to take any administrative action in Flocknote. Even if a person clicks a forwarded tokenized link from an admin's email, it is only what we call a "partial login" and the system would still prompt the forwarded recipient to fully log in to an administrator's profile (either via password or a secure login link) before allowing them access to any admin privileges.
- The original recipient who forwards the email is choosing to share their own information with those to whom they forward any email. By forwarding an email that a person receives via Flocknote, they are only ever sharing their own information with whomever it is they forward that message to.
But what if I want my members to share the note with someone who may not be in the group?
Great question! You can always copy the public note link and paste that somewhere in the email, encouraging your members to share that link with anyone! To learn how to find the public note link, check out the related article linked at the bottom of this page.
*NOTE: This refers to forwarding an email from your own personal inbox, not the Forward feature in Flocknote.