Ref. Ares(2015)408716 - 02/02/2015
Ref. Ares(2016)6955771 - 14/12/2016
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL INFORMATICS
Directorate C - Digital Infrastructure Solutions (DIS)
DIGIT C4 - User Proximity Services (UPS)
Brussels,
DIGIT C4
Ares(2015)
NOTE TO THE ATTENTION OF THE IRMS
Subject:
Document management and automatic deletion of emails
Reference: note from Mrs DAY Ares(2015)182108 dated 16/01/2015
Following above mentioned note Ares(2015)182108 dated 16/01/2015 and several
requests for clarification from IRMs, I would like to provide more details about the
automatic email deletion process.
As explained in the note, the registration criteria defined in the eDomec rules applies to
email messages under the following specific operating conditions:.
An e-mail that contains important information, involves action or follow-up, or
may later be needed as proof, should therefore be registered in Ares. In case of a
request for access, important e-mails should be retrievable in Ares, just as other
types of documents.
The note also makes reference to an automatic deletion mechanism that will be active
from 1 July 2015.
In practice, a centrally automated background process will delete all emails older than 6
months (183 days exactly) present in the 'Inbox', 'Sent Items' or 'Deleted Items' folders or
any subfolders of these 3 folders. This auto-deletion process will be activated on the 1st
of July 2015.
In the note, there is also a reference to personal folders that are available to transfer e-
mail messages for purely personal use. In the context of this note, the terms personal
folders cover any folders other than the folders 'Inbox', 'Sent Items', 'Deleted Items' and
their sub-folders.
In Outlook, the users have access to multiple email containers:
His/her mailbox
Mailboxes are email containers stored on email servers. They contain the default
Outlook folders: Inbox (It is the folder where the messages are delivered), Sent Items,
Draft, Deleted Items, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks... etc
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Commission européenne, 2920 Luxembourg, LUXEMBOURG -
The users can create their own personal folders in their mailbox to further organise
their email data.
PST files
PST files are email containers stored on the file servers.
Currently, DIGIT is running a project to transfer emails from PST files into the users'
mailboxes. The objective of this project is in reducing the storage costs and offering a
better workplace to the users (Remote access to email data: Webmail or Mobile Device;
Offline access to email data on a Commission laptop; Simple to delegate access…). The
emails are transferred from the PST files to personal folders in the users' mailboxes.
The following table summarizes the different types of folders in a mailbox and how they
are affected by the new automatic deletion policy.
Folder Type
6 months
deletion
Inbox
Default
Yes
Draft
Default
No
Sent Items
Default
Yes
Deleted Items
Default
Yes
Calendar
Default
No
Contacts
Default
No
Tasks
Default
No
Personal Items
Created by the user
No
Personal Items – 2014
Created by the user
No
Imported Items 1
Created by the PST Import process
No
Imported Items 2
Created by the PST Import process
No
Subfolders inherit the deletions policy from their parent folder.
DIGIT is preparing a communication to the ITIC users. For the non-ITIC users, as usual,
we rely on you to communicate the information.
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More
information
is
available
in
the
DIGIT
Service
Catalogue
(http://www.cc.cec/itservices/en/content/personal-mailbox-mb). For any remaining
question, you may contact the email service.
Mr
may provide any further information to you.
Head of Unit
Contact:
Cc:
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