Why Email Logs Do Not Replace Registered Email

In technical environments, it is common to hear an apparently reasonable statement:

“We already have email server logs. If there’s a problem, we can prove that the email was sent.”

However, when that statement is transferred to the legal, probative, or regulatory field, it ceases to be valid. SMTP logs are an internal technical tool; registered email, on the other hand, is legal evidence.

Understanding this difference is key to avoiding conflicts, challenges, and situations of defenselessness.

What Email Logs Really Are

Email server logs are internal technical records that document events such as:

• Incoming and outgoing SMTP connections.
• Acceptance or rejection of messages.
• Response codes from destination servers.
• Delivery errors or retries.

They are essential for daily operations, incident resolution, and technical diagnosis. But their purpose is not probative, but operational and a very valuable resource for support teams.

The First Problem: They Are Evidence Generated by One of the Parties

From a legal standpoint, this is the greatest obstacle because logs:

• Are generated, stored, and custodied by the company itself.
• Can be modified, truncated, or regenerated.
• Do not have an electronic signature or an independent timestamp.

In a conflict, a judge or regulator may legitimately ask:

How can I be sure that these logs have not been altered?

For this reason, logs do not have a presumption of truthfulness. They are, at most, an indication, never full proof.

The Second Problem: They Do Not Prove Content

An SMTP log may indicate that a message was accepted by a destination server, and even the number of bytes transmitted in that communication, but it does not demonstrate:

• What exact content the email had.
• What text the recipient received.
• What attached files were sent.
• Whether those attachments have been modified afterward.

In a real dispute, the conflict rarely revolves around whether something was sent, but rather what was sent exactly. Without proof of content, the communication is legally weakened.

The Third Problem: Lack of Legal Context

Logs are designed for system administrators, not for third parties outside the technical environment. This implies that:

• They do not follow a format understandable for judges, lawyers, or inspectors.
• They do not explain the context of the communication.
• They do not integrate the message, attachments, and traceability into a single document.

In legal proceedings or audits, this translates into interpretation difficulty and loss of probative effectiveness.

What Registered Email Provides Compared to Logs

Registered email is born precisely to cover those gaps.

When an email is certified with eEvidence, the system generates an independent electronic evidence that:

• Includes the complete content of the message.
• Records attached files with their cryptographic fingerprints.
• Certifies sending and technical delivery.
• Incorporates electronic signature and timestamping.
• Is custodied by a trusted third party.

The result is an autonomous probative document, verifiable even years later, without depending on the original server or its infrastructure.

Logs and Registered Email Do Not Compete: They Complement Each Other

It is important to emphasize that logs are not useless, but simply they are not designed to prove legal facts.

In a mature architecture:

• Logs serve for operation, diagnosis, and technical support.
• Registered email serves for proof, regulatory compliance, and legal defense.

With eEvidence, moreover, the relevant technical data from SMTP transmission are incorporated into the final evidence, but in a structured, signed, and verifiable way.

A Key Criterion: Independence of Evidence

In probative law, there is a basic principle:

The more independent the source of evidence, the greater its value.

Logs depend on who presents them. Registered email depends on an independent third party, which is not an interested party in the conflict.

That difference is what transforms a technical record into legally solid evidence.

Conclusion

Email logs are necessary, but not sufficient. They serve to know what happened on a server, but not to demonstrate it to a third party with guarantees.

Registered email transforms a technical event into complete legal proof, certifying content, delivery, date, and integrity through cryptographic standards and trust services.

In other words: logs explain what happened; registered email proves it.