A private e-mail message is sent to the primary recipient and the alternate recipient in Exchange Server 2003 and in Exchange 2000 Server

Consider the following scenario. You send a private e-mail message to a recipient whose mailbox is located on a server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. Additionally, the recipient has a designated alternate recipient. When the Deliver messages to both forwarding address and mailbox option is enabled in the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, the private message is sent to both the primary recipient and the alternate recipient.

If you want alternate recipients to receive messages that are not private, use one of the following methods:

• Use the delegation feature in Microsoft Outlook. Additionally, give the delegate all the required rights on the primary recipient mailbox. By default, delegates cannot view private items.
• Create a server-side rule on the primary recipient mailbox to direct all messages to the alternate recipient mailbox except when messages are marked as private. This rule will send the alternate recipient a copy of messages that are not private. No changes will be made to the body or the subject line of the message. Additionally, the sender properties in the message will still be intact.

This behavior is by design.

In Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, messages that a sender marks as private are not delivered to an alternate recipient. This behavior was changed in Exchange 2000 Server and in Exchange Server 2003. If you want to return to the Exchange 5.5 Server behavior, follow the procedure in the "Workaround" section.