at work

our emails are recorded and stored for, i believe, 5 years. from what i understand it is part of some new law(s) that went through (although i could be wrong here). if i'm right, how come MY emails (yesterday i emailed building services because one of the elevators was not functioning correctly) have to be saved and THEIRS DON'T?
White House Says It Routinely Overwrote E-Mail Tapes From 2001 to 2003

By Elizabeth Williamson and Dan EggenWashington Post Staff Writers
E-mail messages sent and received by White House personnel during the first three years of the Bush administration were routinely recorded on tapes that were "recycled," the White House's chief information officer said in a court filing this week.
During the period in question, the Bush presidency faced some of its biggest controversies, including the Iraq war, the leak of former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson's name and the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said he has no reason to believe any e-mails were deliberately destroyed.
From 2001 to October 2003, the White House's practice was to use the same backup tape each day to copy new as well as old e-mails, he said, making it possible that some of those e-mails could still be recovered even from a tape that was repeatedly overwritten. "We are continuing to analyze our systems," Fratto said last night........