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New Email Rules Effective Friday

An anonymous reader writes "As of today [Friday], certain U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees, in accordance with new federal rules. In April the Supreme Court began requiring companies and other entities involved in federal litigation to produce 'electronically stored information' as part of the discovery process of a trial." From the article: "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. 'There are hundreds of "e-discovery vendors" and these businesses raked in approximately $1.6 billion in 2006, [James Wright, director of electronic discovery at Halliburton Co.] said. .'"

3 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Tape? by Mr.NoMoniker · · Score: 3, Funny

    These are NEW rules? and they refer to an IT worker copying over TAPE? Does this mean I should be saving all my carbon paper too? how about punch cards?
    Might all this extra data clog the system of tubes that is the internet?

  2. As the summary says... by jpellino · · Score: 5, Funny

    "companies and other entities involved in federal litigation"

    Odds are you already know if you're one of these.

    (Use your best Jeff Foxworthy voice for this next part)

    "If your CFO has been escorted out of the building on the national news by people with big yellow letters on their backs..."
    "If the new guy in the office spends all his spare time chatting up his sleeve instead of the secretary..."
    "If your office phone system now says Press 1 for Customer Service, Press 2 for Public Defenders..."
    "If they show Dennis Kozlowski on Biography and your boss snorts "Huh. Pikers..."
    "if you check your email and a cheery voice announces "You've got bail!"

    --
    "Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
  3. Re:Massive Pretty Good Privacy by 0xABADC0DA · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yeah google is really going to let you decrypt your email at the client... I can see the ads now:

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