Cacheing the presidential cache

December 11, 2007 11:23 AM

I know that if a President (U.S.) were to send/receive emails, that those would be considered government documents, subject to retention policies, archiving/disclosure, etc. What about all the other online stuff?

With each new Administration it becomes more likely that a President will be looking at web pages, sending/receiving SMS messages, posting to forums (well, maybe not), etc. Must these records be retained? Will future historians be entitled to see President Obama's browser history files? Will Presidential laptops/browsers/Blackberries be equipped with keystroke capture utilities? Or is there just no consensus yet on whether/how to retain these?

posted by stupidsexyFlanders to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Check the Presidential Records Act of 1978.
posted by Ironmouth at 11:29 AM on December 11, 2007

Here's the rules, you can do the sifting.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:38 AM on December 11, 2007

Note that in areas where the Act differs from the Code of Federal Regulations, the Act controls, as the regulations are not laws and laws control in such conflicts.

Note: If stupidsexyflanders is actually Karl Rove, I am not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.*

*applies even if not Rove.
posted by Ironmouth at 11:45 AM on December 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

Executive Order 13233. Don't plan on reading Dubya's e-mails anytime soon. Or, you know, ever.
posted by WCityMike at 2:15 PM on December 12, 2007