What is Records Retention? Document Retention System

Many RISD records contain confidential and/or regulated private data protected by federal, state, and local regulations including, but not limited to, GLBA and FERPA, and many are considered “education records” for students. Confidential records must be securely maintained, controlled, and protected to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure. Storage locations must provide appropriate confidentiality and be protected from unauthorized inspection, theft, or physical damage. Confidential records shall be shredded according to the applicable schedule at the end of their appropriate retention period in order to preserve the confidentiality of the documents through their final disposition. Electronic records containing confidential information should be permanently deleted and purged by a means that prohibits reconstruction of the information.

• If an organization is subject to regulatory compliance, it will likely have to document its data retention requirements to satisfy regulatory mandates.
• Transfer images every to Maryland State Archives for permanent retention.
• Accordingly, the information provided should not be relied upon as a substitute for independent research.
• Good information management policies, like document retention policies and forensic readiness policies, go a long way in ensuring ESI is available in a timely and forensically sound manner.
• 2.2 Responsibilities of Constituencies.This Policy also relates to the responsibilities of board members, staff, consultants, volunteers (“Internews Representatives”) with respect to maintaining and documenting the storage and destruction of the organization’s documents.

Any staff member found to have knowingly and intentionally violated this policy will be subject to serious sanctions. Records are to be maintained only for the recommended retention period, except if a “do not destroy​” directive applies. Documents no longer required for any ministerial, canonical, legal, historical, or operational purpose must be disposed of or destroyed at the end of the retention period. For instance, you are only required to retain export-related records for five years from the date of export. However, if the Commerce Department investigates your business’ export practices, it will review records as far back as you retain them and can apply penalties as far back as your records show noncompliance.

Subpart 4.7 – Contractor Records Retention

Setting minimum retention periods reduces the risk of unauthorized or unwanted access to data. A document retention policy provides a framework and protocols to direct the management of information throughout the data lifecycle to meet regulatory requirements and improve operational efficiency. Any business that deals with sensitive information needs a document retention policy. “Non-Record” means information that would be a Record but for its formal designation as a Non-Record.

An organization must be careful, especially if it’s instituting an automated form of data retention. A data retention policy should treat archived data differently from backup data. Archived data is no longer actively used by the organization, but still needed for long-term retention.

Step 1: risk identification

An organization might need data shifted to archives for future reference or for compliance. Archives are stored on cheaper storage media, so they reduce costs and the volume of primary data storage. Organizations must determine the laws and regulations that govern their data retention requirements so those requirements can be incorporated into the data retention policy. Many factors impact these policies, including changes to regulations, organizational innovations, and employees’ transitions in and out of the company.

If the inDocument Retention Policyation described in paragraph of this section is maintained on a computer, contractors shall retain the computer data on a reliable medium for the time periods prescribed. Contractors may transfer computer data in machine readable form from one reliable computer medium to another. Contractors’ computer data retention and transfer procedures shall maintain the integrity, reliability, and security of the original computer data. Contractors shall also retain an audit trail describing the data transfer.

Security and Compliance Certifications

If you fail to comply with government regulations your business could face hefty fines in real terms or, like in the case of GDPR breaches, a percentage of revenue. A document retention policy helps you avoid these penalties by ensuring that you are keeping the required documents on file, and handling/disposing of them properly. Your document retention policy should make these things really clear so that all employees know what is expected of them. It’s important to review and update your policy on a regular basis to ensure that it meets the changing needs of your business and the regulatory environment. The policy specifies what types of documents need to be retained, how long they must be kept for, and who is responsible for maintaining them. More importantly, it ensures the company is compliant with relevant regulations and protects them in the event of potential litigation.

The Administrator may also appoint one or more assistants to assist in carrying out the Administrator’s responsibilities, with the Administrator, however, retaining ultimate responsibility for administration of this Policy. Compliance with local and industry regulations has always been necessary. But in a globally-connected world, legislation like GDPR is making document retention and data storage more of a compliance issue than ever. Depending on your industry and location, there may be certain legal documents that you are required to keep on file. A document retention policy ensures that you are in compliance with any relevant laws.

Records being used for audits or legal actions must be kept until the audit is satisfied or the legal action ends, even if their minimum retention period has passed. Records retention describes the methods and practices an organization will use to safeguard important records and maintain them for the required period of time until they need to be stored, redirected or otherwise disposed of. A records retention system applies to both paper documents and electronic records such as scanned versions of physical documents, word documents, spreadsheets and more. Once there is a reasonable anticipation of litigation, identified ESI have to be preserved by the organization. The duty to preserve evidence is responsibility of which the organization may be held account for. Employees who have relevant information in their custody and IT departments need to be informed that their ESI has become subject to discovery; hence they have to be issued a litigation hold.