On March 16, Attorney General Dave Yost released the 2026 edition of the Ohio Sunshine Laws: An Open Government Resource Manual, more commonly known as the Yellow Book.
The Yellow Book books an in-depth walkthrough of Ohio's public records laws and open meetings laws.
Among the notable additions to the 2026 Yellow Book is a discussion of the use of platforms and/or applications that automatically delete records (found on page 136 of the Yellow Book's PDF/page 126 of the physical Yellow Book). Examples of these platforms/applications include Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram, among others.
The Yellow Book discourages public employees (including elected officials) from using these platforms/applications due to their self-deleting nature. The Yellow Book reminds public employees that the medium of communication is not determinative of whether or not something is a public record; rather, the content is determinative.
The Attorney General reminds Yellow Book readers that if communications are automatically deleted before they can be retrieved, the public office could be liable for the destruction of public records.
If a public office chooses to allow employees to use these platforms/applications (which the Attorney General strongly encourages against), the Yellow Book recommends it adopt a policy to provide guardrails. Some of the suggested guardrails include the following, among others:
County commissioners, executives, and council members, as well as key county staff, are highly encouraged to review the Yellow Book and refer to it when questions arise regarding public records and/or open meetings (in addition to discussing the issue with your county prosecutor).