Be careful little mouth what you say. Be careful little thumbs what you type. Think your text messages are only meant for you and the one who's meant to read it? Think again.

In the US, text messages are quickly becoming a matter of public record that can be presented in court, something emails and paper records are already subject to, according to USA Today.

Groups in Detroit and New York are already pressing for it in their courts. States such as Arkansas and Texas have already supported cases that asked for records of text messages to be presented in court as evidence.

Some cases have only managed to retrieve text messages that have been stored in the cell phone's memory. However, some groups who support an open government are advocating for logs of these conversations from the provider's records be provided for if the original messages in the cell phone were deleted.

Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition at the University of Missouri, had the following to say about the matter:

I don't care if it's delivered by carrier pigeon, it's a record, If you're using public time or your public office, you're creating public records every time you hit send.

If every time a new technology emerges we're going to argue it's not a public record, then our view of public records is very cramped. If it's not a piece of 8x10 glossy white paper, then it's not a public record? We've got to embrace the future.