Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Best Practices for Managing the Use of Personal Email Accounts, Text Messaging and Other Instant Messaging Tools. Updated 27 July 2023. Best Practices for Managing the Use of Personal Email Accounts, Text Messaging and Other Instant Messaging Tools A Guide for Public Bodies Public bodies subject to have access to a wide variety of popular communication tools and services. Some employees of these public bodies conduct business using text messaging and other instant messaging tools. Public bodies and its employees should never use personal or political party email accounts to conduct the public body’s business. Text messaging and other instant messaging tools create a number of record keeping and compliance challenges. Some of those challenges include: • Searching for and producing records that are responsive to access requests. • Ensuring that records are retained and preserved according to proper records management practices. • Ensuring the privacy and security of personal information. The guidelines below are designed to help a public body meet its administrative and legal obligations under The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) or The Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (LA FOIP). What are Instant Messaging Tools? Instant messaging tools allow electronic messages to be shared in real-time. A few examples of instant messaging tools include: • Short Message Service (SMS) or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) text messages. • BlackBerry Messenger (including Personal Identification Number protocol or “PIN-to-PIN” communications). • Internal instant messaging systems, such as Lync. • Online instant messaging applications like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Google Hangouts.
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