Email deletion

recently, we've noticed an increase in parental subject access requests, and sometimes they arrive with a rather tense tone these requests can be pretty demanding on our resources, especially when the school has a large and varied email history we're here to find the best way to manage this together the challenge arises as soon as you ask the it department to conduct a document search; before you know it, you may end up with 6,000 pages that need to be redacted! because of this, many people often put off dealing with this issue, thinking it's too hard however, keep in mind that taking the time to handle it is worthwhile we know some of you might use your email as a filing system, but that can be risky important files can be tough to locate when you need them, and there's also a chance that a hacker could access your information! email as a filing system is a learned behaviour back in the 90s, when email first became mainstream, many thought, ' hang on, my metal filing cabinet is retiring ' so, they tried to recreate that filing system in their email clients i always remember an old ceo colleague i used to look after from an it perspective he had only two emails in his inbox and a folder called' important ' i remember asking why he had so few emails his response was, ' i have read it most emails are out of date as soon as you read them, so i delete them if it's something vital, then i store it ' we have two practical suggestions to improve this situation first, consider creating a simple policy for storing emails you want to keep, using an organised system like cpoms or myconcern if possible after saving them, you can safely delete these emails from your inbox and sent folder also, setting a reminder to review your saved files later can help keep everything neat and manageable second, consider asking your it support team to set up automatic deletion of emails after a specific period, like three months this not only promotes a helpful new habit—remembering to file essential emails—but also helps to keep your inbox tidy plus, it adds an extra layer of security by reducing the chance of “data bombs”—emails from former employees that might otherwise pose a risk if they fall into the wrong hands when handling subject access requests, this approach can make things much easier for you these requests often look back over many years if you’ve saved emails, you might find yourself going through a lot of old messages but if you've legally deleted emails following your policy, there's no need to worry by following these tips, you'll be able to keep future email buildup under control while still managing your records if manually deleting old emails feels overwhelming, try deleting everything before a date you’re comfortable with remember, if you accidentally delete something you need later, it’s nothing new—it's just like those times when essential letters went missing plus, there's always a chance someone else has a copy, thanks to email distribution lists be bold!