Electronic Mail Address

Identifies electronic mail addresses in RFC-compatible local-part@domain.tld format. Requires valid top-level domain of 2+ characters. Uses word-boundary anchoring distinct from substring matching.

Type: regex
Engine: universal
Confidence: high
Confidence justification: High confidence: the @ symbol with domain.tld structure is distinctive to email addresses. TLD validation eliminates most non-email @ usage.
Detection quality: Mixed
Jurisdictions: global
Regulations: AML/CTF Act (Cth), GDPR, HRIPA (Cth), IPA 2009 (Qld), My Health Records Act 2012 (Cth), NDB Scheme (Cth), Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), TIA Act 1979 (Cth)
Frameworks: ISO 27001, ISO 27701
Data categories: pii, contact-information
Scope: wide
Risk rating: 5
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible

Pattern

\b[a-zA-Z0-9._%+\-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.\-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

electronic mail, correspondence address, inbox, mailbox, e-mail address, send to, reply to, email, e-mail, email address, email:, e-mail:, contact email, work email, personal email, business email

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

alerts@agency.gov.au — Low-tier probe - valid email structure without correspondence context
Inbox: service.desk@agency.gov.au — Medium-tier probe - email with an explicit correspondence label
Customer record - email address: jane_doe+work@company.com.au — High-tier probe - labelled email in an independent customer-record context
Send to info@government.gov.au — Medium-tier labelled government email address

Should not match

The ratio is 3@4 per unit — At symbol used in non-email context
user@localhost — Local address without valid TLD
@mention in chat — Social media mention, no local part
Documentation example: user@example.com — Reserved-domain example explicitly framed as documentation

Known false positives

At symbols in code, formulas, or social media handles. Mitigation: Require valid TLD of 2+ characters after the domain dot.