Regulatory Compliance for Electronic Communications

How does it apply to business communications?

Most business communication is now handled electronically, whether through email, social media platforms, or otherwise. In fact, worldwide, approximately 4 billion people use email daily, which represents almost half of the world’s population in early November 2025. This high volume of digital communication requires regulations regarding the retention of documentation and records to be applied to interactions handled electronically in the workplace.

To fully meet regulatory compliance standards, all records and other pertinent data must be retained in a manner that allows them to be recalled quickly, at any time, to support audit or reporting requirements. All records should be classified as immutable, original content, not replications, so that the integrity of the information within can be ensured.  Simply put, it should be guaranteed that all the Electronically Stored Information (ESI) from an organization contains only original records and communications, and that no user can access and compromise the stored files, maintaining security and accountability.

What are electronic communications?

The term electronic communication refers to email, instant messages, text messages, social media correspondences, and any other interaction that uses an electronic device and is conducted between two or more parties. The data contained within the messages must have been communicated through the use of a personal device, such as a personal computer, a smartphone, etc., meaning any message sent or received in this matter is considered an official record, subject to compliance requirements and governing regulations.

What should be covered for compliance regarding electronic communications?

To be considered in full compliance with current regulatory standards, organizations that communicate in any way —internally or externally — must have a system in place to capture all emails sent and received using the email system.  This can be effectively implemented with an external archiving solution dedicated to preserving business communications, in support of compliance frameworks and risk management strategies.

Email archiving is the process of preserving and making searchable all emails to and from an individual, with no user choice as to what is saved and what is discarded — ensuring policy consistency and preventing record tampering.

To fulfill compliance requirements, these systems must preserve records in a “non-rewriteable, non-erasable format,” and be able to automatically verify the quality and accuracy of the storage media recording process. The system must also possess the capacity to readily download indexes and records preserved on the electronic storage media to any medium acceptable as required by federal and state regulations. Additionally, it means that every communication should be stored and retained for at least the minimum amount of time outlined in an organizational retention policy; the process within an organization to record the information contained in these interactions must be adequately addressed within written supervisory policies and procedures.

Engaging the customer is a vital part of business, and more and more companies are using social media to reach their consumers in a direct and personal way. While there are key advantages to using social media, like generating low-cost leads, receiving important feedback from your audience, and reaching potential customers, there are also pitfalls when your social media compliance is an afterthought. Like other communications, social media is subject to the same regulations that protect consumers against fraudulent advertising and claims, and the preservation of these communications should also be considered a necessary practice for regulatory compliance. Here is a brief list of regulatory bodies that impose rigorous guidelines for social media activity in all businesses:

• Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)
• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC)
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• American Bankers Association (ABA)

When it comes to social media, it’s not surprising that regulated industries and governmental agencies face more challenges. Some of the pitfalls facing regulated businesses are due to a lack of documentation and supervision, as well as mandated content requirements. These businesses generally have strict policies regarding record-keeping, supervision, suitable language, and content, while government agencies must comply with open records requirements.

Regulated businesses should routinely monitor the content in all social media posts and be prepared for audits by one or several regulators. For the financial industry — which experiences the most incidents of social media compliance issues — businesses are required to maintain all posts for three years by FINRA, SEC, FTC, and others. Additionally, content must be reviewed and approved by a principal in the business, and the content of each post must adhere to industry standards and the organization’s internal policies.

By implementing an archiving solution, you will be audit-ready while complying with industry regulations. All social media posts will be automatically archived daily and securely stored to meet data integrity and authenticity requirements set forth by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP).

A social media archiver is not for surveillance of personal accounts of your employees and all that they do in and out of work; rather, it is assurance that accounts associated with your business are acting appropriately and in alignment with your compliance program.

What happens if you aren’t compliant?

Some administrations may lack the basic understanding of what their regulatory compliance obligations for retention encompass. If a federal court orders electronically stored information related to any of the applicable laws listed above, and you are not able to produce it, there can be dramatic consequences. These can be crippling to organizational reputation and individual careers alike. The potential outcomes for non-compliance are numerous and devastating:

Industry audits
Audits are a part of nearly every business organization, for all departments. Communications, internal and external to a company, are subject to audit. The inevitability of an audit necessitates that the information found in these messages must be retained and stored in alignment with compliance requirements.

Discovery requests
In the event of any Open Records requests, litigation, or other legal issues, the inability to find information promptly is extremely difficult to manage. Without the ability to search on a detailed level across all desired mailboxes simultaneously, an organization can’t meet compliance standards for prompt disclosure.

Lawsuits
The retention and preservation of this ESI is increasingly important because any information contained within electronic communications is considered an official record in a court of law. Therefore, it is subject to being used as evidence in lawsuits or litigation that may be levied against the organization, increasing risk management exposure.

Fines
As penalties for compliance violations, most organizations face significant fines. Fines resulting from non-compliance sanctions can total in the billions of dollars, depending on the size of the organizations involved and the scope of the infractions. These can cause irreparable damage to financial stability and corporate integrity.

Potential jail time
There is also the possibility that penalties for non-compliance include jail sentences, sometimes more than 10 years, especially when federal agencies determine there was intent or negligence.

Reputational risk
A lesser-understood aspect of dealing with regulatory compliance failures is the impact on trust and public perception. Reputational risk can lead to loss of shareholder value, damaged stakeholder relationships, and long-term organizational harm.

The damage caused to a company’s reputation within its business community can be equally as detrimental as the damage caused by financial penalties. In some cases, it can cause the relationships held between individuals and organizations to deteriorate to an irreversible point, and has, in extreme cases, been the downfall of organizations.

Who enforces regulatory compliance?

This culture, which necessitates that anything communicated that’s even remotely relevant be retained, began further back than many realize. The laws that led to current regulatory compliance requirements began as early as 1950, and through time have grown to incorporate several different organizations that are set up to monitor and maintain the retention and storage of ESI.

What most organizations fail to realize is that they must be compliant with every industry’s standards, not simply within their primary industry. The tendency most people have is to inadvertently neglect the standards that may apply to them in other sectors of business, and how that crossover would affect the way they catalog their business procedures. For example, an organization that is contracted to work for a governmental entity must meet all the regulatory standards that apply to the government in addition to the regulations laid down by its primary industry.

The following groups are tasked with monitoring their respective areas of business operations and have separate specific regulations that they enforce:

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure govern the collection of electronically stored documents, including email, as evidence in civil suits. They specifically stipulate that all organizations, “…manage their data in such a way that this data can be produced in a timely and concise manner when necessary, such as during legal discovery proceedings.”

In other words, all businesses must retain a data retention policy for all relevant emails, ESI, network logs, and other virtually stored documents. If your company cannot present the documents when requested, the subsequent non-compliance with FRCP regulations can result in fines and fees, and in some cases, criminal charges.

An effective email archiving system eliminates the risk of litigation if your company needs to produce email documents for a civil suit. Implementing email archiving allows you to quickly retain any data that is stored in the system, meeting all FRCP legal requirements.

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

FINRA is the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the United States. It is not a government entity, and therefore cannot levy jail sentences as penalties. However, the fines they impose can reach excessive amounts in totality.

In July 2025, FINRA issued an AWC against Investment Placement Group, resulting in a $100,000 fine and censure. The firm failed to reasonably supervise the use of an approved electronic instant messaging platform and did not ensure that business-related communications were captured and retained. Although a third-party vendor was engaged to archive messages, the firm did not verify that employees’ devices remained connected to the archiving service. As a result, the firm could not produce all messages requested during a FINRA review connected to a customer complaint. The firm later discontinued use of the platform and adopted a system that ensured preservation and review of communications without reliance on a separate vendor.

In another case from July 2025, Daniel Michael Roper was assessed a deferred $15,000 fine, suspended for two years, and required to repay $80,747 in profits. The findings noted that Roper entered thousands of trades in a customer’s account without proper firm authorization and concealed a profit-sharing arrangement. Additionally, Roper conducted business communications — including performance updates and trade discussions — through personal text messages and emails, which were never archived or provided to his firm. This resulted in the firm maintaining incomplete records of required business communications, a direct violation of retention and supervision obligations.

These matters demonstrate ongoing regulatory expectations: firms must maintain audit-ready, tamper-resistant records of all business communications and implement effective supervision protocols to ensure those systems function consistently across employee devices and communication platforms.

Securities and Exchange Commission

Sanctions levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission are typically found in conjunction with those imposed through FINRA, and primarily impact broker-dealers. They range from significant fines to prison sentences of up to 20 years.

SEC Rule 17a-3 and 17a-4 specify the minimum requirements with respect to records that broker-dealers must make and how long those records and other official documentation must be retained. Specifically, rule 17a-4(f) states that records required under 17a-3 must be immediately produced or reproduced on electronic storage media that meet the conditions set forth.  Additionally, it stipulates that broker-dealers maintaining their electronic records are required to use a digital storage system, specifically one that “preserves the records exclusively in a non-rewritable, non-erasable format.” This archive must also be able to automatically verify the quality and accuracy of the stored media, serialize the original or duplicated media by time and date for their required retention period, and it must have the capacity to readily download indexes and records preserved on the electronic storage media to any medium required.

The SEC continues to rigorously enforce compliance in both domestic and international financial activities, particularly regarding the maintenance and preservation of electronic communications.

In September 2022, the SEC charged 16 major Wall Street firms for widespread recordkeeping failures, resulting in penalties exceeding $1.1 billion. The investigation revealed employees routinely used personal devices and off-channel messaging apps for business communications that were not preserved, violating federal securities laws. Firms involved included Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and UBS, among others, highlighting systemic compliance deficiencies in electronic communication practices.

In 2023, the SEC imposed penalties totaling $25 million on a financial advisory firm and its executives for failing to supervise and preserve electronic communications related to client accounts, reinforcing the importance of robust compliance policies and archiving systems.

More recently, in 2024, the SEC sanctioned a global investment firm for recordkeeping violations connected to the use of personal devices and messaging platforms for trading communications. The firm was required to pay $30 million and implement enhanced electronic record retention controls to prevent recurrence.

These cases demonstrate the SEC’s continued focus on ensuring that all business communications, especially electronic messages, are properly captured, supervised, and preserved to maintain market integrity and investor trust.

Health Information Portability and Accountability Act

The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is an important piece of legislation that addresses the issue of safeguarding data/security regarding someone’s private medical information. The implementation of HIPAA has had a significant impact on how companies, regardless of industry, do business. New rules and standards for privacy over a person’s health information apply to insurance companies, employers, pharmacies, doctors’ offices, and hospitals, to name a few. HIPAA protects all individually identified health information (e.g., it has associated information such as a name or address that might allow someone to identify the individual whose health information is being discussed), in any media (paper, electronic, oral). This information is referred to as “personal health information”, or PHI.

Penalties for HIPAA violations increase in severity depending on the number of offenses.  Violations occurring for the first time result in fines ranging from $100-$50,000. For second-time violations, the resulting consequences span from fines of $1.5 million and over to potential jail time. Violators will receive up to a year of prison time if it is found they “knowingly obtain or disclose individually identifiable health information.” If it is discovered that the offenses were committed under false pretenses, the resulting prison sentence can be upwards of 5 years.

There are several examples of significant penalties being handed out for HIPAA violations.

In 2022, Lifetime Healthcare Companies, including Excellus Health Plan in New York, agreed to a $5.1 million settlement with the U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The organization failed to implement adequate technical safeguards, monitoring, and protections for electronically stored health records. The breach affected over 9.3 million individuals, and the company did not ensure that its systems were properly secured to protect electronic communications containing protected health information (PHI).

In another 2022 case, Oklahoma State University’s Center for Health Services paid an $875,000 settlement to the OCR. The organization lacked sufficient security controls over electronic records and failed to adequately protect or monitor electronic communications and servers.

In 2023, Banner Health Affiliated Covered Entities in Phoenix, Arizona, agreed to a $1.25 million settlement following a breach in which a threat actor accessed electronic patient records, exposing the PHI of 2.81 million individuals. The breach highlighted deficiencies in protecting electronic communications and patient data. Banner Health was required to implement a corrective action plan to strengthen safeguards and ensure ongoing compliance.

These cases demonstrate ongoing regulatory expectations: organizations must implement robust technical safeguards, continuously monitor electronic communication platforms, and ensure that PHI is securely retained, fully auditable, and protected against unauthorized access or loss.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) regulates corporate financial practices and governance, specifically targeting fraudulent reporting and questionable business conduct. It also addresses document retention and the preservation of electronic records, requiring that key financial and audit-related documents be maintained for a minimum of five years to prevent alteration or destruction during legal or regulatory reviews.

Section 802 (a)(2) of SOX deals with the penalties and fines which are imposed for altering, destroying, mutilating, concealing, or falsifying records with the direct intent of influencing a legal investigation, specifically referring to “documents that form the basis of an audit or review, memoranda, correspondence, communications, other documents, and records (including electronic records) which are created, sent, or received in connection with an audit or review and contain conclusions, opinions, analyses, or financial data relating to such an audit or review….” The penalties can range from fines to jail time of up to 10 years, or a combination of both.

In February 2023, a fraudster orchestrating an online investment scheme pleaded guilty to defrauding more than 10,000 investors of over $55 million. The underlying misconduct included altering electronic documents and communications to mask the true nature of the transactions, reflecting SOX’s focus on preserving accurate financial and business records.

In November 2024, a defendant in the Northern District of California pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud, two counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of theft of government property, and one count of destruction of records. The scheme involved misrepresenting investment opportunities and destroying electronic evidence that was subject to investigation. As part of the plea, the defendant admitted to destroying records to obstruct a government investigation, a violation that aligns with the record‑tampering provisions found in SOX.

These cases highlight the ongoing enforcement emphasis under SOX: organizations and individuals must ensure that electronic communications and records are accurately preserved, audit‑ready, and free from alteration or destruction. Failure to meet these compliance obligations can trigger criminal liability, substantial fines, and reputational harm.

Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) specifically refers to a federal law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States Government. It outlines which records are subject to disclosure and the procedures for disclosing the information within those records. Originally enacted in the mid-1960s, FOIA has since been expanded to cover electronically stored records, requiring agencies to retain communications and instructions that may be relevant to litigation or other legal proceedings.

In recent cases, FOIA has been applied to ensure the preservation and disclosure of electronic communications. For example, in 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court ruling enforcing FOIA disclosure requirements for federal records, demonstrating ongoing judicial support for government transparency. Similarly, in 2025, a federal judge ordered former Trump administration officials to preserve records from a Signal group chat, highlighting the application of FOIA principles to modern electronic messaging platforms.

FOIA specifically governs federal agencies, though similar Open Records Requests exist at the state level to regulate transparency and records retention.

A dedicated email archiving solution provides your organization with the ability to satisfy a variety of State and Federal Regulations. Third-party email archiving solutions provide storing, searching, and retrieving capabilities, which enable your compliance officer to manage emails in accordance with your organization’s specific legal requirements. These solutions are capable of securely storing all the email communication, including both internal and external emails. Email Archiving also provides the ability to quickly search the relevant emails for review and retrieval for any potential legal situations.

Quick tip from Intradyn:

Find the strictest regulations across all industries, and become compliant with those standards. If you are compliant with these rules, you are certain to be compliant with any lower level of regulation. The Intradyn Email Archiving Solutions guarantee this level of readiness and prepare your organization, should anything happen.

Choose an archiving solution.

Organizations around the world are now accessing and using multiple electronic communications platforms within the workday. On average, 28% of the work week is spent handling electronic business communications. These platforms allow employees to send and receive information in real-time, both within the company and to peers working in other organizations. With more and more of these platforms being launched regularly, monitoring communications for compliance purposes has never been more difficult.

The importance of this data will only increase, as is evidenced by the numbers found in this report done by The Radicati Group, Inc:

Retaining all of this critically important data is the first step in remaining compliant across all industries, and fortunately, there are various solutions designed solely for archiving emails, social media correspondence, and the information contained within, allowing your company to identify which is best for you.

Determine which solution fits your needs

Organizations need to develop a platform designed to ingest vast volumes of data and store all of it in a compliant manner. These systems have to be able to capture all regulated communications and archive them in a way that demonstrates that they are authentic representations of the original communications.

Essentially, two distinct types of archiving solutions exist to help accomplish this: “in-house” or “on-premise” solutions, and “external” or “hosted” archiving solutions. Recently, the demand for hosted archiving solutions has increased, especially regarding the use of cloud-based systems. However, comparing these two types of systems is imperative when selecting the best practice for retaining your organization’s information.

In-house solutions
An on-premise email archiving solution requires the purchase, setup, and management of the related hardware, software, and services to run it. Storage needs must be estimated and paid for initially, which requires determining the de-duplication rate (single-instance storage) of the archive. Running and maintaining the system for the full length of the longest retention period or litigation hold becomes an ongoing task for your IT department. On-premise solutions tend to be more ideal for larger organizations. Companies with the necessary budgetary and staffing resources may prefer on-premise solutions because they want to have complete control over their archiving infrastructure and manage the system internally. For organizations that want their data literally within their four walls, an on-premise solution makes sense.

External solutions
Hosted archiving solutions don’t require companies to purchase and deploy any additional hardware or software, nor do they necessitate ongoing maintenance time or complex upgrades. They incur all the upfront costs of implementing the solution and provide you with worry-free access to your data. In time, they upgrade their infrastructure behind the scenes and keep the service up for the end users. They usually have dedicated resources for monitoring the cloud infrastructure. Overall, cloud service removes the burden from the business to the vendor. Some solutions offer unlimited storage, which is another benefit.

Storing archived data in the cloud can be cost-effective when compared with storing and maintaining large amounts of nonessential data in-house. Using external solutions, such as cloud-based archiving, alleviates the need for buying and upgrading on-premises disk or tape hardware systems and archiving software to manage and store non-primary data. An organization can reduce its data center footprint and use less power and cooling resources by storing data in the cloud. When looking for a cloud archiving provider, organizations should consider the provider’s service-level agreement for data recovery, what tools are available to find data when it is needed, whether the cloud has a self-service portal, if the cloud meets all the customers’ compliance requirements, and if the application that stores the data is supported.

Implement a concrete retention policy

Aside from where your information is stored, deciding what to store and how long to store it can be just as crucial to compliance as anything else. The email retention policy should be governed by your corporate governance and comply with industry and government regulations. An email retention policy should cover all emails sent or received by your organization. It should contain the guidelines for how long emails should be kept and how they should be removed from the email archiving solution.

One of the most important aspects of the email retention policy is that the management of document retention should be automatic. What this means to you is that emails should be removed from the system in a consistent manner without any manual intervention. This eliminates human error and decreases your liability significantly. The automation should also account for any pending cases before deleting any emails.

Having an email archiving solution helps you in complying with your email retention policy. It also assists you in automating your email retention policy. The type of retention policy your organization adopts can help to streamline and simplify your ability to remain in compliance, especially if your organization chooses to implement a hosted solution. Using the latest technology to apply and enforce policies for communications by employees, regardless of the format, provides the necessary tools for enabling compliant communication.

Determine what information will be kept

As stated many times before, to remain in full compliance, all email and social media communications should be retained. The average corporate email user sends and receives around 110 messages per day. Implementing an archiving solution and establishing a policy to decide what is kept is vital not only to compliance efforts but also to an employee’s ability to effectively manage their time.

Retention policies are typically built around the compliance standards as they apply to the industry. According to the FRCP, document retention applies to everything electronic (emails, directives, files, communications, and requests), meaning that if your organization faces any legal situations and fails to produce any kind of electronically stored information, the results could be potentially devastating.

Decide who makes the decision

Some organizations implement archiving solutions that have retention policies allowing users to decide which communications should be retained. This necessitates a tremendous amount of time and resources, requiring the physical archiving of any information an individual deems worthy of keeping.

Unfortunately, this does not keep organizations in compliance because it leaves open the possibility of document tampering or destruction. These kinds of gaps in retention policies remain very present in today’s business culture, leaving organizations vulnerable to undetected fraud, errors, and lawsuits or litigations involving regulatory enforcement policies.

How long should Information be retained?

This decision is generally wholly based on the industry your organization belongs to, as each carries its own set of federal regulatory standards. To find a full list of the minimum requirements, visit the Intradyn website. Here are a handful of applicable minimum lengths of retention periods.

Every action that a person takes with their email should be audited. An email archiving solution allows you to conduct this audit, whether it is figuring out who is deleting emails, who is looking at certain emails, or who is changing emails. A top-notch email archiving solution also allows for what is known as “random sampling,” which is a suitable way to ensure you’re routinely auditing your email archiving for certain activity or behavior.

Who has access to audit information?
This tool allows an administrator complete oversight of the communications taking place within an organization, as well as those between employees and the outside community. An email archiving system usually allows the administrator of the solution to configure who has access to these logs.

Which accounts are accessible and should be monitored and archived from?
The ability to audit electronic communications is nearly mandatory when it comes to achieving regulatory compliance. Because of that, the archiving solution implemented within an organization should be able to monitor and log the activity of all accounts, including email, social media, and others.

eDiscovery is a provision in federal and state statutes. Discovery is a legal process that allows attorneys on both sides to ask for information that is relevant to a case and that may lead to the discovery of other important facts and information. Parties to a lawsuit are required to provide this information in the discovery portion of the case. Intradyn’s search features allow you to simplify the audit process and streamline preparation for eDiscovery and litigation by searching posts using keywords and filters, and full text. Once you have created your report, you can export your social media data to any spreadsheet.

Can you provide the requested information in a prompt and timely manner?
A key component of the eDiscovery process is the length of time it takes for the party in question to present the requested material. The easiest way to guarantee your archiving solution is capable of accomplishing this task promptly is by implementing a solution that features top-of-the-line search capabilities.  The ability to search through an archive for a specific communication allows you to produce the exact item in question in a manner that satisfies any deadline requirements.

Is your information stored in an acceptable format, i.e., a format other than paper or hard copies?
The copies of your emails or social media communications, which are stored in an archive, are guaranteed to be preserved exclusively in “non-rewritable, non-erasable” format, with the ability to verify the authenticity and quality of the stored media.

Can you ensure that sensitive information can be protected?

If you are required to produce electronically stored information, there exists the possibility that communications that are relevant to the request contain other information that is considered sensitive or private. In these situations, some archiving solutions, like Intradyn’s, will allow the administrator to redact or hide any information that is tagged. In the Intradyn system, the administrator is able to redact information from a single message or across an entire string of communications.

Is your archived data available for access at any time?

A fear that some users have prior to using an archiving solution like Intradyn is that they will not be able to access their information whenever they need to. There is even the fear that switching providers could lead to your information effectively being held hostage. With Intradyn, you are guaranteed that your information is always available to you.

We believe that your data is just that: yours.

Contact us for more information on how Intradyn’s eDiscovery solution can help your organization achieve regulatory compliance.