I thought that legally the server side had to retain emails for 5 - year terms particularly for legal situations. If google were subpoenaed I believe they would hav two provide
It happened to an IT client of mine. He attempted to delete 10 years of cloud files and emails on google to escape forth coming legal troubles about a year in advance. The accounts were deleted. Long before I was involved. He thought he could get away with it. It was at that point that I learned that wasn’t the case. At least with all of his google files, and any email he sent over another AOL account going back five years.
I figured that made sense. Ofcourse shady people will try to cover their digital tracks.
Thank you for sharing those additional details. The individual in question had an interesting background, an officer leaving a publicly traded tech company during the dot com bubble and returning to face a massive lawsuit with involving all his former partners. The fact that everyone associated with the company was subpoenaed suggests a comprehensive investigation. Perhaps it was the clients profile?
Regarding the individual’s attempt to delete correspondence, it’s challenging to ascertain the exact reasons for the data being provided to legal. Several factors might have played a role, such as the timing of the lawsuit, data retention policies of the tech companies involved, and legal obligations to cooperate with investigations going on while this individual was sailing the world for a decade completely disconnected from his past involvement with that entity. I was never privy to more information, so it’s hard to determine if it was related to the person’s identity or simply what they did.
As for data deletion, tech support informed me that deactivating or deleting said m accounts and waiting for a significant period (5-years) might ensure complete deletion. However, the companies explained that they had their own data retention policies (mid 2010s) that could impact the extent of data removal even after the user made such attempts. And the user couldn’t count on it being really gone due to those retention policies.
The outcome was that at least enough of his data was recovered to be condemning.
I have had other similar experiences with retention of deceased’s data. However I do not have expert knowledge on how each of on the specific practices of the companies involved.
[slight rant] This is a reminder to be careful with data in the "cloud"
My organization just lost a entire email account full of emails needed for a law suite....