Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to FOIP, Chapter 6, Protection of Privacy. Updated 27 February 2023. 359 Personal Email Use for Business Email is an easy and accessible form of communication and a tool that we all use in our professional and personal lives. However, for government-related activities, personal email accounts should not be used. There are both access and privacy issues that arise when government-related activities are conducted using personal email accounts. FOIP provides individuals with the right to access records in the possession or under the control of a government institution, subject to limited and specific exemptions. Storing government records in personal email accounts, threatens the right of access to records that FOIP provides as searches for records responsive to an access to information request are not generally done of government officials’ personal email accounts. There is also a risk that important records that reflect decision-making by government are not preserved as required by law. The Archives and Public Records Management Act (APRM Act) defines “public records”. Public records need to be retained, destroyed, or transferred to the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan as per the APRM Act. Using personal email for government-related activities runs contrary to this requirement as the records reside elsewhere. Government should be taking steps to ensure that it is consistently preserving records in the name of good governance as well as for the responsible preservation of documents that could be subject to future access to information requests.857 Overall, such practices undermine the transparency and accountability of government that is the foundation of access and privacy legislation. FOIP requires a government institution to respond to a written access to information request openly, accurately, and completely (s. 5.1(1) of FOIP). The use of personal email accounts by public servants makes this duty difficult to comply with because government may not be aware of the existence of records on personal email accounts that are responsive to an access to information request. If a government employee uses a personal device and/or personal account (such as personal email account) to conduct government-related activities, the Commissioner has taken the position that such records are still subject to FOIP.858 857 SK OIPC Investigation Report 101-2017 at [34]. 858 SK OIPC resource, Best Practices for Managing the Use of Personal Email Accounts, Text Messaging and Other Instant Messaging Tools, May 2018 at p. 4. Available at Best Practices for Managing the Use of Personal Email Accounts, Text Messaging and Other Instant Messaging Tools (oipc.sk.ca). Accessed December 29, 2022.
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