WEB DESK
In the United States, companies may face steeper penalties for misconduct, if they lack policies around employees’ use of personal cell phones and messaging apps. A top US Justice Department official said, federal prosecutors will be examining policies for off-channel work communications when evaluating compliance programs. Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Kenneth Polite was speaking at an American Bar Association conference in Miami.
The new directive is the latest sign of heightened government scrutiny over the use of personal devices and apps such as WhatsApp. The agency will evaluate how companies have crafted policies around the use of such platforms and how they have directed employees on those policies.
In an interview to a news agency, Mr Polite said, the use of such platforms, including ephemeral messaging apps, can complicate government investigations into wrongdoing if companies do not retain the records. He said, it is an issue that prosecutors will address as they investigate wrongdoing.
He said, in a lot of circumstances, companies simply don’t have policies at all in this space. They simply haven’t given thought to the challenges that are raised by retaining messages off devices that their employees are dealing with on a regular basis.
Since 2021, firms across Wall Street have been embroiled in investigations by a civil regulator, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, over whether employees’ use of such platforms has broken record-keeping rules.
The new directive is part of a series of Justice Department policy changes aimed at tackling corporate crime and encouraging companies to be more proactive in reporting misconduct to the government.