My understanding from a source I believe is quite reliable tells me the gov’t NEVER EVER discards information on anybody, anything, anywhere.
I believe it.
“My understanding from a source I believe is quite reliable tells me the gov’t NEVER EVER discards information on anybody, anything, anywhere.”
It really depends on the agency I suppose. Some deem the data essential, others do not. Some have retention periods that they must keep the data. They always try to destroy on that date if possible. Otherwise, they would have to pay for maintenance and storage costs, and the data could be FOIAd.
I’m aware of areas where the normal archiving is set for 50 years. Paper records get unwieldy and expensive to maintain, but in this age, electronic soft copies can be maintained indefinitely and take up a very small fraction of the space.