Legal professionals across the globe should take note: The U.S. federal agencies have warned that companies may fall afoul of the law if they delete data from ‘ephemeral messaging’ applications such as Slack and Signal. This statement, emerging from an address by Federal Trade Commission official Manish Kumar, indicates an increasing scrutiny into how corporations manage interactions over such platforms. It underscores the expectation from both the Justice Department and the FTC that all responsive documents, even those from apps with features that disguise or delete evidence, should be preserved and produced.
With a growing popularity of these digital communication tools in big corporations and law firms, maintaining transparency and record-keeping pose significant challenges. There is a delicate balance between utilizing the advantages these platforms offer for facilitating internal communication, and ensuring compliance with pertinent regulation. Deleting chats and data from these applications could well be perceived as an attempt to hide evidence and could potentially ignite legal repercussions.
In this dynamic legal environment, it’s crucial for corporations to keep themselves apprised and evolve their data retention policies as necessary. As always, it is advisable to seek experienced legal counsel to navigate complex regulatory landscapes.
More details can be found in the original article published on Law.com.