Re: DISCUSSION: archiving of NOMCOM information

[Robert Elz <kre@munnari.OZ.AU>]

    Date:        Fri, 15 Mar 2002 09:32:24 -0800
    From:        Randy Bush <randy@psg.com>
    Message-ID:  <E16lvZ2-0006GP-00@rip.psg.com>

  | i believe it has one simple goal, responsible retention of
  | all data in case it needs to be disclosed UNDER COURT ORDER
  | (or your cultural equivalent) in a lawsuit or criminal
  | proceeding.  hence, all data, including candidate data,
  | needs to be kept.

No, that is exactly the reason that most of it should not be kept.
No court can order you to do the impossible - if there are no records,
you can't be compelled to disclose them.  The only way that can attract
a penalty would be if there was some legal requirement that the records
must be kept.

But this is back to the amateur lawyering - to get a real answer, actually
ask a lawyer, but ask the right question - not "how much should we keep?"
but "how can we avoid keeping almost anything?"   If there's some requirement
that some particular records be kept, you'll get told that in answer to
the 2nd question (just like if you were to ask it wrt financial records,
you'd get told that you need to keep X to comply with corporations law,
Y to comply with employee laws, and Z to comply with tax lawa.)

But certainly don't start assuming that we need to keep everything just
so come court in the future can order it to be produced.   That's rubbish.

kre