New Email Policy in Minnesota

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Several counties across Minnesota have adopted a new email system that automatically erases messages from employee inboxes after six months.

KVRR talked to Clay County officials to find out if they plan on using the new data practice.

The short answer to that question is no they are not currently purging emails and don’t plan on doing so.

Officials in cities like St. Paul say they started using this new system to force employees to be organized.

But they received backlash saying they are trying to minimize transparency.

This is happening amidst a controversy with Hillary Clinton who used her personal email account in lieu of official government email accounts to try and keep information private.

Clay County human resources officials tell me they have been using an archiving system for the past two and half years and don’t plan on changing.

“Basically all of our emails are archived. And once somebody leaves, the archived ones will remain but we do delete their email account and their emails that they have there that have been archived,” says Clay County Human Resources Director Darren Brooke.

Clay County officials also say the state has not provided any specific guidelines on what to do with emails so each county is on their own.

They also say they try to remain as transparent as possible.