Ask HN: How court is able to find past executive emails?

3 pointsmandeepj3 comments

This is in reference to various trails like Apple vs Epic and now Tesla\Solarcity vs Shareholders. Can't the executives delete those emails and stay clean, or as public companies they have to keep the record of all of their communications?

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Most executives I've known use a web portal for sensitive emails and communicating with one another. Usually these portals have something like "Secure Email" in the name, but they are really just a web interface to email that limits what can go to whom, has data retention policies and usually multi-factor authentication. Courts can get the emails from these providers assuming the provider is legit and law abiding and reside in a country where law enforcement have jurisdiction. Some are not. The executives can be compelled to turn over authentication.

For US companies, both the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (for executives at public companies) and FINRA rules (for securities brokers, etc) require document retention for specific periods, for paper and electronic communications.

...and enterprise mail servers (like Exchange) have compliance features that prevent deletes or clone messages once a hold is placed on a certain account.

See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/Exchange/policy-and-complia...

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