Deleting Email Is a Chimera

In response to the Sony hack, in which not only valuable intellectual property, such as movies, was stolen, but also (previously) confidential emails, a number of experts have recommended increasing the usage of email retention policies. They go something like this: Email is confidential People put things in corporate email that they do not want seen outside the company Companies get hacked Therefore, we should limit the damage by forcibly deleting all emails older than some time period, say, 30 days The Wall Street Journal also had an article discussing the debate about email retention policies.