Citizens upset over destruction of records

When certain records are destroyed, some people may be upset they no longer have access to the data,  no matter how seemingly unimportant they are. Even the most obscure files could be interesting to someone, or the files could be put to good use in the future. As such, many companies and government agencies like to store their records digitally, with the use of conversion services.

This technology can help individuals store files on computers so that they can be accessed by a multitude of individuals researching remotely or a business facing litigation during ediscovery. This may have been a good strategy in Connecticut, where people are up in arms after records were destroyed at the Office of State Ethics.

According to the Hartford Courant, employees threw out public financial records dating back 25 years. J. Herbert Smith, president of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, told the source that the agency had an obligation to disclose the information to the public.

"You'd need to keep those, just for the sake of history," Smith told the Courant. "Let's not forget that we can store electronic data forever. So why get rid of them?"

Particularly in government agencies, electronic storage is a good idea, because it can make research easier and free up valuable floor space that would have been taken up by filing cabinets.

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