New Rules Make Firms Track E-Mails, IMs

You thought Big Brother was watching you before?

U.S. companies will need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents generated by their employees thanks to new federal rules that go into effect Friday, legal experts say.

Now companies must archive all IM and email transmissions, so they can be avalaible for subpoena in the eventuality of litigation. Big deal, you say?

James Wright, director of electronic discovery at Halliburton Co., said that large companies are likely to face higher costs from organizing their data to comply with the rules. In addition to e-mail, companies will need to know about things more difficult to track, like digital photos of work sites on employee cell phones and information on removable memory cards, he said.

Are you kiddin' me? This is going to suck.