U.S. Companies Must Track E-Mails, IMs

U.S. Companies Must Track E-Mails, IMs​

New Rules Make Firms Track E-Mails, IMs

Dec 1, 12:26 AM (ET)

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say.

The rules, approved by the Supreme Court in April, require companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce "electronically stored information" as part of the discovery process, when evidence is shared by both sides before a trial.

The change makes it more important for companies to know what electronic information they have and where. Under the new rules, an information technology employee who routinely copies over a backup computer tape could be committing the equivalent of "virtual shredding," said Alvin F. Lindsay, a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP and expert on technology and litigation... To Read More: Click Here

Good Luck!

 

As if infringing on our rights with the Patriot Act wasnt enough......

 

Wasn't shredding developed to protect companies?
abri

 

Problem is, backups are pretty automatic nowdays. And they have made some major cases. It has been pretty well stated over the years that you do not put into email anything you don't want spread over the news, for obvious reasons. It was that way with old time BBSes, and it's that way with modern email.

Some really good things have come of it, enough that the potential for bad stuff to be done with it is pretty well offset. Face it, if it is in digital format, assume it is forever, otherwise use paper or phone (and those can come back on you too).

 

If you're required to save everything in your e-mails, then it can only be a step away until you're required to save all your phone calls (if the government doesn't do it for you). And after that, there's only the final step of saving every uncensored thing that escapes your mouth ... and won't we all be in trouble then...
muharharharhar
<devil face>
abri

 

There are some fundimental differences between phone calls and email. The backups in digital media are occuring automatically, always have been. The big difference is you have to keep the records longer. There has never been a comprible setup for voice, ever.

I could be biased from my BBS. In my Terms of Service it clearly states any email left on my board becomes my property, and don't say anything you don't want to be public. This is to control racist/hate harrasement that might occur (I had another board that was shut down due to something similar). Before computers and shredders written corrispondence was kept for long durations, historians depended on it.

You might think of some of the stuff that has come to light due to emails being so tenatious (goes back to backups have always existed). More good than evil has come from the outing of truth accidently stored. The law formalizes that which has always existed, it would be more hassle to delete old email permanently than to keep it.

 

I agree with this. If you've got nothing to hide, then it won't matter...

You expect everything in your country to be secure, but then you expect your privacy to be "respected" 100%. It's just not possible.

Maybe in the future, when people get a brain, and become more humane, and stopping being violent, committing crimes, becoming terrorists, maybe they won't need to monitor you.

 

With young kids being recruited and trained by terrorist groups, the inhumanity will never stop and as long as they pose a threat to us, our privacy will be compromised from time to time.

 

They didn't used to attack America, it's just you're trying to win a war with Law and Order, which is impossible. Terrorists will continue to attack America, until you admit that a Lawful and Orderly approach to anti-terrorism won't work.

 

In my first computer course (Fortran 101) in 1979, my instructor told us to Never put anything on a computer that you don't want everyone to know. It is still applicable, more so today than then.

 

You could even add a proviso to that, even after 50 years. I'm somewhat an archivist, and not the most fanatical at that. I still have the email that was exchanged on my board that existed 20 years ago, and has been defunct for 15 years. As mass storage gets cheaper and cheaper it will only get worse.

Digital data is just too easy to store. This is not an accident, a lot of R&D went into making it so.