7-3103: Retention of Data Stored on Backup Media

Purpose

Implementation of this policy will define in the length of time that County departments retain electronic data stored on backup media. 

This policy implementation will also benefit the County during electronic discovery (e-discovery) actions. The ability to specify the County’s criteria for backup data retention will enable the County to draw distinct boundaries with regard to e-discovery actions. Additionally, efficiency will be improved by limiting the County IT resources required in researching and preparing materials related to e-discovery actions.

Authority

• Chief Information Officer 

Scope

This policy applies to all electronic data stored on backup media by the County and limits the time for which the County would retain the backup data. 

Policy

Data Stored on Backup Media

The data stored on backup media should be kept only as long as is needed to ensure that operations can be restored following a disastrous data loss; this retention period for data stored on backup media shall not exceed six (6) months. Backup media is defined as tape, disk, or optical. 

This definition will change over time as new technologies emerge for backing up data (i.e., solid state drives, off-site services, etc.). 

Backup systems are not designed for data retention. Backup systems exist for the purpose of periodic recovery of critical data during the course of business or in the event of a disaster. Backup systems should not be utilized for records retention purposes. 

Data retention is the responsibility of the owner of the data and is not part of the backup process. Backup copies performed by Information Technology staff are not considered a records retention method. County record documents shall be retained according to a department’s records retention schedule. 

Electronic Mail

Electronic mail should be viewed as a communication tool, not a storage mechanism. Generally, messages sent to a users’ mailbox are temporary communications which are non-vital and should be routinely discarded. However, depending on the content of the message, it may be considered public record. If electronic mail or its attachments contain public record information, then those records should be handled according to departmental policy and records retention schedule. 

The Department of Technology designed the electronic mail infrastructure to maintain all real-time messages until deleted by an employee. Once a message is deleted by an employee, it is retained for six (6) months by the Department of Technology and then is purged. 

Legal Proceedings

Regardless of retention requirements, all electronic or paper documents and messages pertaining to threatened or actual legal proceedings must be retained until litigation concludes (pursuant to the County’s Litigation Hold Policy).