What should we do if a federal employee leaves the agency with official records stored on their personal phone or laptop?

When a federal employee departs with official records on a personal phone or laptop, the core principle is simple: federal records belong to the government, not to the individual who created or received them. Records made or received in the course of agency business must be captured into an agency recordkeeping system regardless of the device or account used to create them. A departure does not change that obligation, and personal ownership of the hardware does not make the records personal property.

Act Promptly to Recover the Records

The first priority is to preserve and recover the records before they are lost or deleted.

• Identify what federal records the employee may have stored on personal devices or accounts, including email, text and chat messages, documents, and notes.
• Direct the departing employee, in writing, to forward or transfer all official records to an official agency system and to refrain from deleting anything.
• Coordinate with records management staff, IT, and counsel so the transfer is documented and the records are placed under proper control.
• Confirm completeness before clearing the employee out, ideally as part of the standard exit and separation process.

Preserve, Then Address Disposition

Once recovered, the records should be filed according to the applicable records schedule and retained or dispositioned only under approved authority. Records under a legal hold, FOIA request, or investigation must be preserved and not destroyed. Unauthorized removal or destruction of federal records can carry serious consequences, so these situations should be escalated rather than handled informally.

Prevent the Next Occurrence

This problem is best solved before it happens.

• Set clear policy that conducting agency business on personal devices or accounts is discouraged, and that any record created there must be promptly copied into an official system.
• Build records recovery into onboarding, offboarding, and separation checklists.
• Train staff so they understand that “personal device” never means “personal record.”

For broader context on managing federal records and departing-employee obligations, see the federal records topic hub.

A consistent message helps: the medium is incidental, but the record itself is always the agency’s responsibility.