Metadata

Metadata The Ghosts & Monsters Lurking in Your Electronically Stored Information

Louellen S. Coker
Owner of Content Solutions
MA- Technical Communications
Writing Document Design Editing Graphic Design Photography Web Design Public Relations SEO/SEM

What is the origin of metadata?
In December 2006, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures were amended to define what constitutes electronically stored information (ESI). The definition is provided in Rule 34(a):
writings, drawings, graphs, charts, photographs, sound recordings, images, and other data or data compilations—stored in any medium from which information can be obtained either directly or, if necessary, after translation by the responding party into a reasonably usable form.

What is metadata anyway?
“ Data about data”
Date, time, author, history, and more that’s hidden in the background of all ESI
In layman’s terms, it’s similar to your cholesterol levels—sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad

When is metadata good for you?
Authentication
Collaboration/Commenting
Making your information findable via keywords
Version identification
Chronological information
Identification of authors
Copyrights

When is metadata bad for you?
When opposing counsel turns on tracking and happens to discover key points and/or weaknesses in your case
When you modify your template forms by copying and pasting select from one document to another
Redactions done inappropriately
When you maliciously alter/remove metadata from ESI turned over in the discovery process

Can you avoid creating metadata?
NO, but you can minimize it
Start with a new document each time
Change your save preferences to “ Remove personal information from file properties on save. ”
Remove identifying information from the document’s property summary (File > Properties > Summary)
Turn off fast save
Remove the information you don’t want to share

Can you remove metadata?

Does it work?
MOSTLY!
(they come out at night … mostly!)

Is there a better way?
Word processing software companies offer free downloads that remove deeper metadata (you get what you pay for)
Companies that are devoted to providing you with software “scrubbers” (can be quite costly)
Saving as a Portable Document Format (pdf)

Now what?
Be aware of your duty to your client, opposing counsel and yourself (Do your research!)
Introduce (or strengthen) protective policies into your workflow
Train (and retrain) your staff about the important role metadata can/does play in your practice

Questions

Metadata

by Louellen Coker on Feb 07, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

Metadata — Presentation Transcript