Expert: DebiN - 9/11/2011

Question
Hello,
Although I know that this has been asked before, due to the rapidly changing world of technology, I've got to ask again. Is text message content retained and available by subpoena? Specifically, T-mobile.. 4 month old, deleted text messages? Sorry to beat a dead horse, but there are a million conflicting opinions all over the Internet, and I would like an accurate answer once and for all... Many cite cases where texts have been used..but upon further research, I find that many of these cases involved messages preserved on hand-sets, or messages that had been retained after a preservation letter had been issued.. Please help settle this issue..
Thank you!

Answer
Hi Calypso -

Thank you so much for the specifically detailed question. It makes it a lot easier for me to give you a clear and concise answer to your very important question:

1. If someone deletes their text messages from their handset and there wasn't a preservation letter that had been issued, the text message is permanently erased (i.e., the content of the message). The record of the message being sent and read is retained because the carriers are required to retain them.

2. The only way that a text message can be retained is if it was saved on a handset, downloaded to a computer, or retained via on-line reading and saving of the message.

What a subpoena will do if the message has already been deleted from the handset is to get the record of the message from the carrier. Nothing else. The carriers don't retain the content of text messages because they are not required to do this and none of them do this because of the sheer volume of messages. If a preservation order had been sent prior to the messages being sent, then they would be keeping these, but other than that, all deleted text messages are gone forever.

If a text message was saved to a SIM card and then deleted and no message has come onto the card to overwite it, you may be able to use a SIM card reader to undelete the message, however, if many months have passed and other messages and records have come across the card, it's very unlikely the undeleted message will still be there. You can't undelete on a phone, only the card and as I mentioned, it's very unlikely. I hope this helps.