What is going on?
Everyone at UiO must clean up their e-mail and delete as much as possible.
At UiO, we store huge amounts of data completely unnecessarily, which costs a lot of money and gives an increased climate footprint. Much of what we have in our e-mail is information that is no longer useful, and other things should have been archived or stored elsewhere.
According to the GDPR (personal data protection regulation), no information with personal data should be kept longer than necessary, which means that a lot of old e-mails shold probably be deleted. In addition, UiO's guidelines for storage of confidential information (red data) are being changed, and it will no longer be permitted to send or store e-mails with such information. All e-mails containing red data must therefore be removed, that is; stored elsehwhere or delted.
We ask you to comply with this and delete all emails that you no longer need.
- The IT department will try out the cleanup process and will start already in April. The rest of UiO will follow when the IT department's cleanup has been evaluated. More information with helpful tips and technical possibilities will be provided after the IT department has tested this, but anyone who wants to is welcome to start cleaning up already now.
What do I have to do?
Clean up your e-mail and delete unnecessary mails and attachments
You need to clean up your e-mail, and delete old and unnecessary mails. UiO stores huge amounts of data completely unnecessarily, which costs money and increases the climate footprint. It is a goal that staff and students delete all email they do not need, for example anything older than two years or all folders with email about completed activities. The goal is for you to have as little clutter as possible in your e-mail. Important information must normally be located elsewhere than in e-mail to be useful, and information that is not important must be deleted.
→Tips for cleanup and deleting mail
Remove red data
UiO is introducing new guidelines for the storage of confidential information (red data), and it will no longer be permitted to send or store e-mails with such information. Everyone must remove so-called red data (confidential information) from their e-mail. Red data is data that needs protection because it contains personal information or other things that require extra protection. If you want to keep such information, you move the information out and store it correctly, and then delete it from your e-mail.
→See UiO's classification guide to learn about the different data classes.
→See UiO's storage guide to learn where different types of data can be stored.
Work smarter
At UiO, we are now ready to start working smarter digitally and thus save time and have a smaller climate footprint. But that requires that we adopt new solutions in a good way. Use chat in Teams or Mattermost for questions, prompts and "small talk" that you might have previously done by e-mail. Share documents from Teams instead of sending them as attachments. Delete unimportant emails right away. Sort your email into folders by activity and transfer them to archive, other appropriate storage location or delete as activities are completed. You can also choose to delete all email in a folder older than 1, 3 or 5 years. The setting is made per folder. →See instructions for automatic deletion of e-mails based on how old they are.
More information and good advice to come!
Why?
UiO is launching this cleanup effort to minimize the amount of data we store and thus reduce our carbon footprint and expenses, and to better comply with the requirements of GDPR.
At UiO, we store enormous amounts of data in our emails, and the more data we store, the more resources and energy we consume. UiO aims to reduce its own carbon footprint and facilitate environmentally conscious choices for employees and students (UiO's climate and environmental strategy). Storing large amounts of emails is resource- and cost-intensive, and now the amount of data we store will be reduced.
Another important reason to clean up emails is that GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) stipulates that no information containing personal data should be stored longer than necessary, and thus we cannot have such information lying around in emails.
UiO is also preparing to implement the email solution in MS365, which will mean that it will no longer be allowed to send or store emails with confidential information (red data).
The deadline for cleaning up your mailbox and deleting emails, including the removal of red data, is the transition to the new email solution. The date is not set, but it is advantageous to start cleaning up early.
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