In September 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memo announcing revisions to the DOJ’s corporate criminal enforcement policies and practices. The memo made clear that the DOJ expects “all corporations with robust compliance programs [to] have effective policies governing the use of personal devices and third-party messaging platforms for corporate communications . . . provide clear training to employees about such policies and . . . enforce such policies when violations are identified.” This policy effectively applies to every business that could conceivably face DOJ inquiry and evidences the DOJ’s growing frustration with its inability to obtain relevant texts and instant messages from target subjects, especially when these communications are occurring outside employer-provided communication platforms.
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