Email Archiving/Retention Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 1. Why do we use email archiving? The County s need to search email has risen dramatically over the last few years, driven by public disclosure requests, e-discovery, and internal investigation needs. Searching our email system has been cumbersome and labor-intensive, negatively impacting multiple departments. Meanwhile, allowing employees to delete emails has raised issues whether some items should have been retained. Many employees are unsure which emails they create and/or receive have retention and/or archival value. Indeed, the standards governing retention are not always clear. Important changes to the Washington Administrative Code effective January 1, 2010 require us to keep records, including email records, in an electronic, searchable format with all their metadata. This change alone calls for the implementation of an email archiving system. 2. Is there a related policy governing email archiving? Yes. There is an Email Retention Policy adopted in October 2009. 3. What is kept in the archive? Copies of all email you send and receive and all Word documents, videos or other files sent and received as attachments in Outlook are kept in the archive. Items will be stored in the archive in the same folder location you used for each item in Outlook. 4. Are there any types of email explicitly excluded from the archive? Yes. The email archiving system does not keep copies of draft emails not yet sent, message recall responses, email quarantined as spam or virus by our spam filtering service, emails letting a sender know a recipient is out of the office, emails regarding whether appointment requests were accepted, declined or tentatively accepted, and system operational messages (ie: Dolfin and myit notices, monitoring system alerts). 5. What about my calendar, contacts and tasks I store in Outlook? Not all information in Outlook is kept in the archive. For example, your contact list, calendar information and self-assigned tasks are never copied into the archive. Aspects of Outlook not supported in the County, such as journaling, should not be used and are not copied into the archive. 6. Are other electronic messaging systems included in this archive? Page 1
No. Instant messaging, for example, is not centrally logged or archived. 7. What about GroupWise email migrated to the new Microsoft Exchange email system? GroupWise email sent date information was copied into the new email system. Because of this, some email is already over six years old in the email system and beyond the proposed retention period. All these emails must be dealt with before we turn on auto deletion of email. 8. Why aren t just selected emails retained in the email archive? By archiving all email, it is true we will save many emails that have no retention value. However, we actually will operate more efficiently as a County with this chosen methodology. Here s why: Our statistics show that each County employee receives on average 40 emails a day. If each employee took just six seconds to analyze and decide whether each email should be kept and to process it accordingly, that would require 206 hours of County staff time each day. That translates to a productivity allocation equivalent to $2.7 million dollars of staff time a year for email retention. In addition, one email kept, instead of deleted, might save the County from losing a lawsuit. Our email archiving system retains deleted emails without clogging each user s Inbox. Lastly, most County employees have not received training on records retention and upcoming changes to retention schedules making it problematic to ask employees to categorize their email records according to records retention requirements. 9. How long are items retained in the archive? Six years from the Sent date as shown in the email. 10. Why is email retained for six years? Pierce County is committed to open government, and keeping all email for a minimum of six years will help to assure this important resource is available for any public record requests, litigation or other needs that arise. If a longer period is necessary, a hold may be placed on email (see below). Under applicable retention schedules, shorter periods than six years do govern many email messages (there is no specific email retention period as it takes on the retention period of its subject matter), but applying those categories would involve substantial employee education and time, and errors would inevitably occur. By keeping more email longer, the County honors its commitment to open government and keeps its employees more productive. 11. Won t it be expensive to keep email for six years? It is affordable to keep email for six years because we have an email archiving system already in place necessary to run our Exchange system with adequate performance. Based on current projections, each additional year of email storage costs an average of $50,000 a year. In comparison, a purchased IT system can cost $50,000 to $150,000 a year in software maintenance alone. Many County departments have one or more purchased IT systems they pay vendors hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to maintain. This approximate $50,000 a year provides email archiving for the entire County. Page 2
12. Are you going to ask me before you permanently delete email when its six years has passed? No. Email older than six years will be automatically deleted every day from the archive using system settings. No human interaction will occur as part of the deletion process. At this time, the system does not allow any notification to the archive holder of the impending deletion. 13. What if I need to keep email longer than six years? Some records retention standards require records to be kept longer than six years, for example emails relating to felony criminal cases. In these cases, the sender (or recipient if received from an outside party) is responsible for identifying this record and ensuring it is retained in an electronic, searchable format that includes all the metadata. One choice might be to copy the email record into a separate document management system such as Assessor-Treasurer s Docman system or the Executive s edocs system. IT has no easy way to keep only certain emails within the email archiving system beyond six years, but there is potential to classify specific emails for further retention or wait for future releases of our email archiving software to enable new functionality in this area. If you want to keep an email for other reasons beyond six years, please make sure there is a valid reason to do so for County business purposes, and then follow instructions to be published in the future. Keeping unnecessary email longer than six years is a wasteful practice in both staff time and hardware storage costs. The County will be working on developing options for departments that are required to keep certain email records longer than six years. 14. When is an email archived? Emails are recorded immediately and posted to the archive within one day. 15. When did email archiving begin? Email archiving was initiated on April 30, 2009. All email in Exchange at that time was copied to the archive and all email sent and received since April 30th is being archived. 16. How much of my email is kept in the live Exchange system vs. the archive system? To improve system performance, we plan to only keep the most recent 365 days (1 year) worth of email in the live Exchange system. In contrast, all your email sent and received over the past six years will be stored in the archive. Emails in the live system can be moved into different folders which will be preserved in the archive. 17. Can I search my archive? Yes. There is a powerful tool that allows you to search all the email in the archive that you have received and sent. Training guides will be available. Page 3
18. Will spam be kept in the archive? Quarantined spam (items not delivered to your in box), will not be archived because it is not considered received email. If you release an email from quarantine and it enters your Outlook Inbox, then it will be archived. 19. Can I delete email? You can delete email from Outlook, but the email will remain in the archive system, within the folder structure you held it in, with information on when you deleted it until six years from its sent date. After six years from its sent date it will be permanently deleted from the archive. You can access your deleted email in your archive until it is permanently deleted. 20. Can I empty my trash? You can empty your trash from Outlook, but the emails in the trash folder will remain in the archive system until six years from its sent date. After six years it will be permanently deleted from the archive. You can access your deleted email in your archive until it is permanently deleted. 21. Can the County search my email and/or email attachments? Yes. The same tool that you can use to search your archived email can be used by an authorized, designated individual to search all email you send and receive and all Word documents, videos or other files sent and received as attachments in Outlook. 22. Who has access to view my email archive? Authorized searchers will have access to your archive. Examples include Human Resources, Prosecuting Attorney, your department leadership or Public Records Request Responders in the County. A policy is in place (Data Investigation Policy) for authorizing and granting access for searches. Release of any data will follow standard agency policies pertaining to public records requests, litigation and investigations. Searches in the archive are auditable as well. 23. Can I mark an email as a record to be retained? Currently, email can only be kept within the email archiving system longer than six years if an approved hold is applied to the email. Approved holds include litigation hold, public records request hold and investigative hold. Holds can only be applied following an approved data investigation where an authorized searcher uses a special search tool to apply the hold to appropriate records that need to be kept until a situation is resolved. See the Data Investigation Policy for more information. The County will be working on developing options for departments that are required to keep other email records longer than six years. 24. How can I learn more about records retention policies? Every department has identified a records specialist. If you have questions about what records you Page 4
should keep or where and how you should keep them, contact your department records specialist. More questions? Email your questions to the IT Service Desk. Glossary: Metadata: As related to email archiving, metadata is information about an email that is stored within the email such as recipients, sent date and time, mime heading (routing information), etc. Quarantined spam: Emails stopped by a filtering service that looks for known patterns or suspected patterns of email that might be unsolicited and unwanted. Over 98% of the incoming email to Pierce County from the Internet is caught and quarantined by our spam filter. Users can release an email from the quarantine which puts the email in the user s Inbox. Instant messaging: The County uses a product called Microsoft Office Communicator to offer instant messaging to authorized County users. It allows users to send quick text messages to each other to conduct an on-line conversation. Outlook: Our email system software that users use to access their Exchange email. live Exchange System: Our Exchange email system that is used to send and deliver email for County email users. Only a portion of a user s email is kept on the live Exchange System. Older and deleted emails are kept in the email archiving system. GroupWise: The County s previous email system used from 1991 2009. Page 5