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Hi, At the Guardian News & Media archive we've been advised by our business's data protection officer that, in the light of the General Data Protection Regulation coming in next year, we should no longer be seeking to take in any external emails as emails without explicit permission, but instead should capture their text in an anonymized format (ie. stripped of all personally identifying metadata and pasted into a word doc or similar). This could have implications for our existing holdings, including paper letters from readers and other external contacts who may still be living, as well as currently unsorted email deposits. As I understand it, the GDPR carries forward the exceptions used by archives under the directive, but there is now a requirement to store information in an anonymized format if this can be done without defeating the purpose of retaining it. From my perspective, email (and hard copy) identifying metadata is necessary to give correspondence the authenticity and evidential value of an archive, but I'm not sure if this argument will be convincing enough to win our colleagues over. I was wondering if other archives holding or collecting correspondence from living people are facing similar advice, and how you are preparing for the GDPR? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks very much, Philippa Philippa Mole Guardian News & Media Archive Contact the list owner for assistance at [log in to unmask] For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra