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. Are Text Messages, Other Instant Messages and Emails Considered to be “Records”? Yes. The term “record” is defined at subsection 2(1)(i) of FOIP and subsection 2(1)(j) of LA FOIP as follows: “record” means a record of information in any form and includes information that is written, photographed, recorded or stored in any manner, but does not include computer programs or other mechanisms that produce records; Emails, text messages and other instant messages are forms of electronic correspondence and are considered records under FOIP and LA FOIP, regardless of the tool or service used to create them as long as they are in the possession or control of the public body. Are Instant Messages and Emails Sent From or Received in Personal Email Accounts Subject to the Acts? Section 5 of both FOIP and LA FOIP provides that, “every person has a right to and, on an application made in accordance with this Part, shall be permitted access to records that are in the possession or under the control” of a public body unless specific exemptions apply. The Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) has set criteria that it uses to determine if a record is in the possession or control of a public body that may take into consideration the physical location of a record and factors such as why was the record created, who created it and if it relates to the public body’s mandate or functions. A record does not need to be both in the possession or control of a public body, but rather one or the other. Therefore, in those cases where a record is not in the possession of the public body, the question is whether it is under the public body’s control. In deciding this, the IPC considers the following: 1. Do the contents of the document relate to the public body’s business? 2. Can the public body reasonably expect to obtain a copy of the document upon request?
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTgwMjYzOA==