It has never been easier to communicate. The origin of human speech has been tentatively traced to around 100,000 BCE. The use of technology for communication dates back to 30,000 BCE and the first use of symbols. Humans have consistently sought means of communicating outside one's immediate tribe and have fought to render distance a challenge, rather than an impediment, to communication. From smoke signals to Snapchat, as a species we have developed myriad means by which to send a message. The vast majority of us can do so with a few taps on our phones. However, with increased ease comes the heightened risk that our tools for communication can be used inappropriately.

A majority of employees use their cellphones for both business and pleasure — 75% of U.S. employees use their personal cellphones for work. (This statistic pre-dates the COVID-19 pandemic, which means that it is likely much higher now as more workers work either entirely or partially from home.) And while 51% of employees use company-mandated apps to do work on their cellphones, many employees use additional apps to do their jobs that their companies do not know about and cannot track. This has caused a huge compliance problem, particularly for regulated financial firms that are obligated to keep records of their business activities.

This issue first made headlines back in December 2021 when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined a large investment bank $200 million for recordkeeping violations related to its employees' use of WhatsApp messages to conduct business. Following a sweep targeting large broker dealers, the SEC fined an additional 16 financial firms in September 2022. The fines totaled a combined $1.8 billion after subpoena responses revealed their employees discussing deals and trades on their personal devices and apps. Then in January 2023, late to the party but not to be outdone, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined another licensed broker dealer $200,000 for its failure to retain business-related text messages, despite the firm having identified the issue on its own and self-reported.