Chapter 7: Electronic Records

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Section 1: Definition of Electronic Records and Overview

Definition of Electronic Record

Per, Bulletin 1, Section 6.92: Electronic Records Standards and Procedures, the definition of an electronic records is:

Electronic state record--Information that meets the definition of a state record in the Texas Government Code §441.031 and §441.180, and is maintained in electronic format for computer processing, including the product of computer processing of the information. Any state record may be created or stored electronically in accordance with standards and procedures adopted as administrative rules of the commission as authorized by Texas Government Code §441.189.

According to 15 United States Code 7006 (4), “Title 15 - Commerce and Trade; Chapter 96. Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce; Electronic Signatures in Commerce”, an electronic record is “a contract or other record created, generated, sent, communicated, received, or stored by electronic means. Electronic records include email, text messages, disaster recovery backup tape, and records that exist on portable media, such as memory sticks, mobile devices, laptops, or computers.

CAUTION: Records related to department work that may be produced or kept on personal devices away from the office are considered official records and are not the employee's personal property.

Any official record may be created or stored electronically. Certified output from electronically digitized images or other electronic data compilations is accepted as official records by any court or administrative agency of this state unless barred by a federal law, regulation, or rule of court.

The definition of an official record can range from a single document to entire files of different types of applications and media related to the conduct of official business. In this chapter, the term record and file may be used interchangeably to describe official records, as distinguished from the use of these terms to describe specific data sets in the computing environment.