Access to State E-mail System:- Employees only. Employees of the State are granted access to the e-mail system to carry out their assigned duties. System privileges to non-employees shall be granted only with approval of the agency director or his designee. Access to the e-mail system may be terminated at any time if it has been determined access is no longer needed or there has been abuse of the system. If an agency’s policies include retention of electronic records, information contained in an e-mail system must remain accessible for reference, as required by the retention guidelines in those policies. To remain accessible, the electronic data must be migrated to new software and storage media as updates occur.
Disclosure of E-mail:
All e-mail that resides on the message server, on any file server, or on any individual's workstation belongs to the State of Wyoming. The State reserves the right to inspect e-mail at any time. Inspection of e-mail is limited to the following entities: - State/Agency:
- Immediate supervisor, division management, agency director, Attorney General, including the Department of Criminal Investigation, or as otherwise statutorily authorized. The Attorney General’s access to records of the Public Defender’s Office may be subject to common law or statutory privilege.
Non-State:- Anyone with proper judicial approval
Anyone requesting to see certain public records pursuant to the Public Records Act
- Litigation and discovery of public records. Any public record (under the definition of “public record” in W.S. 16-4-201, which specifically excludes information privileged or confidential by law) is subject to discovery requests as part of a legal proceeding. Some confidential data might also be subject to discovery, usually with a court order. Discovery can include all data in e-mail, including all archived e-mail that may pertain to the particular court case. Therefore, it is incumbent upon e-mail system users to manage their data in accordance with an approved record retention schedule. Users should purge e-mail from the system as soon as its purpose has been served. It is also incumbent upon e-mail system users, if confidential communications or information is sent by e-mail, to have a system for separating confidential or privileged information from public information.
- Inspection of public records. Any person may inspect public records at reasonable times subject to any regulation, rule, or exception contained in or allowed by W.S. 16-4-201 through 16-4-205 and W.S. 9-2-407. If you have questions regarding the inspection of e-mail records, contact your Assistant Attorney General.
- Requests for E-mail. Requests to inspect e-mail documents should be referred to the agency director. The agency director or his designee should determine, with consultation of the Attorney General’s Office if appropriate, if inspection is appropriate and how best to fulfill the inspection request.
- One week backup only. Each agency may establish its own backup policy, but it is recommended that backup of e-mail systems should be for disaster recovery and should be retained no longer than one week. Any requests to inspect backup e-mail records should go through the agency director or his designee for processing.
Retention of Public Records Created as E-mail: - Types of E-mail. E-mail, like word processing, is a medium, not a record type. The records are the various documents that are created, sent, and received through the e-mail system. Records in the e-mail system should remain in that application for only a short time. E-mail documents can be non-records, time limited records, permanent/archival records, or confidential records.
- Non-record E-mail. Non-record e-mail messages are created primarily for the communication of information which does not set policy, establish guidelines or procedures, certify a transaction, or become a receipt, and that have no enduring value. Since this type of message is informal, it could be compared to, but not limited to, personal messages, duplicate documents, telephone call notices, scheduled meetings reminders, or other temporary information. This type of message is short lived and should be deleted as soon as its purpose has been completed.
- Time limited records created as e-mail. Time limited records are those which have a legal or administrative value, but are not permanent. E-mail records of this classification must be maintained in a usable format in accordance with the agency’s retention policy. The forms in which these records are maintained may be hard copy printout, microfilm or may be electronically generated. Internal procedures and system design should protect against document alteration, identify other records related to the same subject, and provide for regular, scheduled disposition. Should a file be identified as a time limited record but not listed in the retention schedule, agencies should contact the State Archives, Records Management Unit, phone 777-7826 for assistance in obtaining disposition authority.
- Permanent records created as e-mail. Permanent/Archival records are those records having legal, administrative or historical value which must be retained indefinitely. These records must be preserved in a medium that can be used by future generations. Since there are no national standards for permanency of the electronic medium on which e-mail is maintained and since that medium is not considered permanent, these electronic records are not considered acceptable for permanent record storage. It is recognized that there are constant changes in e-mail technology. If or when standards for permanence of e-mail become a reality, and the medium is judged permanent, this policy will be re-evaluated and appropriate changes will be made. E-mail records appraised as permanent must be converted to paper, microfilm, or another acceptable medium for permanent record retention.
- Preservation of sender, recipient and date information. E-mail that is identified as a record must at a minimum contain the senders, recipients, and time/date of transmission or receipt.
- Electronic calendar records. Although not directly an e-mail function, many e-mail software packages provide calendaring capabilities. Offices using the calendaring feature to document affected agency public hearings or regulatory meetings must retain calendar records for the period of time identified in the State of Wyoming General Schedules – Executive Branch or as specified by a separate retention schedule.
- Retention schedules. If a retention schedule needs to be developed, contact the State Archives, Records Management Unit, phone 777-7826 for assistance.
- Retention of digital data. Public records may include digital data such as graphics files, digital photographs, sound or wave files and video clips. If appropriate, such digital data may need to be preserved or converted to hard copy for retention purposes.
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