Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 14:12:49 -0600
From: Larry Kahn <larry.kahn@kinkaid.org>
Subject: Email Retention Policy
My school is having discussions regarding document retention and the
retention of emails has come up as a concern. It would be helpful for me to
know the policies of other schools.
1) If an email is not deleted by a user how long could it potentially stay
on your system?
Indefinitely.
2) If you have a policy that automatically deletes emails how long has it
been in place and how has it worked for your school?
We do not. Before I arrived (7+ years ago) an attmept was made to do that
and it simply met with so much resistance that it was not tried again.
3) Do you have the same email retention policy for everyone (administrative
staff/teachers/students) who uses your email system?
No.
5) What email system do you use?
Gmail. With document retention through their Postini subsidiary for 10 years
for faculty and staff. We do not archive for students.
P.S. We distinguish between email deletion policies and message archiving
for e-discovery and file restore processes. The user complete controls her
or his space on GMail, but Postini keeps a copy of every inbound and
outbound messages, incuding attachments. Google Chat is also archived IF
the user has not turned off saving chat to email. To my knowledge, Postini
dos not archive all chat. I wish it did. Postini does not archive Google
docs, sites, or anything else either.
Thank You,
Larry Kahn
Director of Academic and Information Technology
Phone (713) 243-5090
Skype larrykahn
Twitter larry.kahn
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