Communications retention policies are a core feature of the MyComplianceOffice eComms Keep and eComms Review solutions. Understanding how and when processes happen in the system is critical to ensuring effective use.
Overview
Messages and Alerts are retained for as long as their defined retention policy states. After this retention period ends, the purge date, those messages are subject to being purged from the system in a non-recoverable way. This automatic purging process can be suspended through Legal Holds.
Alerts and Messages have their retention period applied at the time they are initially processed but they use different start dates for the purge date calculation. Message purge dates are calculated based on the Sent At, the date the message was originally sent. While Alert purge dates are calculated based on the date of risk detection.
Whenever multiple retention policies apply to the same data, the system will always take the longest retention period. Dependent data will also not be purged until all related data is able to be purged.
Retention Policies
There are two types of retention policy: Account and Group.
Account Retention Policy | Defines the default retention for all messages and alerts within the account. |
Group Retention Policy | Retention policies that override the default account level retention. Messages and alerts that involve group members will have the associated group policy applied. Whenever group retention policies apply, the longest duration will be put into effect. |
Retention Process
Retention policies are interpreted at the point-in-time messages are processed and alerts are initially created. How these are calculated and applied differs between messages and alerts.
Message Retention
Messages are stored once in the system and may be visible across multiple groups. Therefore, message retention respects the retention period of the maximum group or account level policy across all participants.
The general rules for determined participant retention policy are:
Any participant who does not belong to a group will have the Account Retention Policy in effect.
Any participant in one or more groups will be subject to the longest retention policy of their groups in effect.
Alert Retention
Alerts are generated based upon either Group Policies or Account Policies. Alerts generated based on Account Policies have the Account Retention Policy applied. Whereas, alerts generated based on Group Policies will have that specific Group Retention Policy applied.
What is Retained?
Retention of messages and alerts ensures they and any supporting data are not removed during the retention period.
For messages, this means that attachments and source files are retained for as long as the message is retained. For messages that come as part of a batch file, such as daily batches from ICE Chat, the entire batch file is retained until all messages within it are eligible to be purged.
For alerts, the triggering message will be retained for at least as long as the alert. For those alerts based on instant messages that include context such as a thread, the entirety of the messaging context will be retained to support the alert as well.
Alerts will also be retained retained if any of the messages in their context is currently on legal hold.
Legal Holds
Retention policies define the minimum period to prevent communications data from being purged from the system. At times, such as during a legal proceeding, it may become necessary to suspend the automatic purging that occurs at the end of the retention period.
Legal holds are the means to suspend purging indefinitely until the hold is removed. Multiple Legal Holds may be placed on the same message. As soon as all Legal Holds are removed, the retention policy will resume. If the retention period has already expired during the hold, then the communications data will be purged within the next 24 hours.
Legal Hold on Collection
When specific communications can be identified, they may be placed into a Collection. The entire contents of a Collection can be placed on Legal Hold. Adding or removing messages in a Collection will cause them to automatically inherit the same Legal Hold setting.
Group Legal Hold
Sometimes a legal hold must be placed on all of the communications belonging to a specific covered employee or group of employees. To facilitate this, Groups provide a Legal Hold option.
Once Legal Hold is enabled on a Group, all messages involving members of that Group will have retention policies indefinitely suspended. This applies to all messages already present in the archive and to any new messages that arrive involving members of the Group.
As soon as Legal Hold is removed from the Group settings, the retention period will resume. Any messages that are already beyond their purge date, with no other legal holds applied, will be purged during the next processing cycle.