We often hear the words “We need to keep that record for legal reasons” but what do they really mean? The vagueness of public records archiving laws has led to several state governments implementing new rules to manage new communication platforms. However, with these new laws come a lot of misconceptions and misinformation about public records archiving. Not only have these misconceptions led to inefficiency, but they are also the main cause why improvement has been hindered in response processes for the request of public records.  Let’s take a look at some of these myths and what really is the truth about them.

It is not crucial to record SMS message

The Truth- Archiving text messages is part of public records law.

Government can rely on carrier networks when it comes to retaining mobile communications

The Truth- Carrier networks do not archive messages for the long term by default.

There is a definite period of retention for mobile messages

The Truth- The retention period for electronic records varies per state. 

Banning text messaging at work is key to compliance

The Truth- No texting policy is not an FOIA and public records defense.

To learn more about public records archiving, here is an infographic brought to us by Telemessage, the leading company when it comes to call monitoring.

Michael Murray