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on 04-22-2009 09:02 AM
Business today is very “cut throat” and to keep your business running, especially in these financially strapped time companies have become very diligent with the security and privacy of their data.
On top of just trying to protect your business from information being stolen or leaked to the opposition we have the legal side of protecting not only your data from theft but protecting your company from Legal attacks.
Today we send almost 90% of all communication electronically. Now it is no longer only account management people dealing with the customer but we have individual employees having direct communication with the customer by email or over some form of Instant messenger.
We all know someone who works for one of our suppliers or someone who works for a competitor and being able to email them or go online to Yahoo or MSN or to any of the other instant messenger services to just chat with your family, friends or relations. These tools make it easy for us all to communicate.
There is however a down side to this. When we talk with family and friends using electronic communication we tend to express ourselves in the same manner as we would if we were face to face and we tend to forget our business hat so we talk about the weather, where we are going on vacation, about the man or woman you met over the weekend in the club, or the pretty lady or handsome man in the office next to you. Most of these are ok if you were face to face with a person BUT since you are sending emails or IM what many people don’t realize is that in many companies every word typed is being stored by either your company or the company the person you are chatting with works for.
This means your conversation is no longer private. Not only is it not private anymore but it is subject to be used in court either against you personally or against your company.
Today’s courts not only know that this data is stored but in many cases mandates that companies archive this data as it is admissible in court. So when type that message on email or on your IM that data is seen and may be held against you in court. Even sending an SMS to your wife telling her you will be home on time for dinner, it is all stored somewhere as an ex Mayor of Detroit found out the hard way.
The private SMS, email or IM that you sent to your girlfriend or boyfriend is not private. Someone somewhere has access to it. The fact the data is stored somewhere does not necessarily mean it will be read but the chance it might be should always be in the back of your mind when you type the words.
Today if two companies have a legal battle the opposing counsel submits a request for discovery, in the past this meant being provided a mountain of paperwork which they must read and filter out the relevant files. Today that is not always the case. As well as asking for the paperwork they also request e-Discovery which means a list of terms and search criteria are sent to the opposing counsel the they must search their archive of electronic data and present the results of that in electronic format.
This is then loaded into legal search tools such as concordance which can then be searched in detail and any item deemed relevant to the case is assigned a bates number and submitted as evidence.
This is your company’s data being used against you or your company. So now when you email your buddy and comment on the bosses PA and how she looks, that’s evidence that can be used against you for sexual harassment.
When you email you buddy saying that you have been shipping a product to a customer and you knew there was something wrong with it but decided to ship it anyway to meet deadline, and your company is sued, that friendly email or IM to your buddy is no longer private, it is now to be used in court and may very well cost you your job
So today when you IM or email your buddy or email your family letting them know how things are, keep in the back of your mind that since you are sitting in your office there is a very good chance what you are typing is being archived and may be used against you or your company.
Be it to a customer, family or friend, always wear your business hat when sending communication from your office because weather you know it or not Big Brother IS actually watching
Liam Finn
Computer User Solutions
Enterprisevaultfaq - We're searching for contributors
On top of just trying to protect your business from information being stolen or leaked to the opposition we have the legal side of protecting not only your data from theft but protecting your company from Legal attacks.
Today we send almost 90% of all communication electronically. Now it is no longer only account management people dealing with the customer but we have individual employees having direct communication with the customer by email or over some form of Instant messenger.
We all know someone who works for one of our suppliers or someone who works for a competitor and being able to email them or go online to Yahoo or MSN or to any of the other instant messenger services to just chat with your family, friends or relations. These tools make it easy for us all to communicate.
There is however a down side to this. When we talk with family and friends using electronic communication we tend to express ourselves in the same manner as we would if we were face to face and we tend to forget our business hat so we talk about the weather, where we are going on vacation, about the man or woman you met over the weekend in the club, or the pretty lady or handsome man in the office next to you. Most of these are ok if you were face to face with a person BUT since you are sending emails or IM what many people don’t realize is that in many companies every word typed is being stored by either your company or the company the person you are chatting with works for.
This means your conversation is no longer private. Not only is it not private anymore but it is subject to be used in court either against you personally or against your company.
Today’s courts not only know that this data is stored but in many cases mandates that companies archive this data as it is admissible in court. So when type that message on email or on your IM that data is seen and may be held against you in court. Even sending an SMS to your wife telling her you will be home on time for dinner, it is all stored somewhere as an ex Mayor of Detroit found out the hard way.
The private SMS, email or IM that you sent to your girlfriend or boyfriend is not private. Someone somewhere has access to it. The fact the data is stored somewhere does not necessarily mean it will be read but the chance it might be should always be in the back of your mind when you type the words.
Today if two companies have a legal battle the opposing counsel submits a request for discovery, in the past this meant being provided a mountain of paperwork which they must read and filter out the relevant files. Today that is not always the case. As well as asking for the paperwork they also request e-Discovery which means a list of terms and search criteria are sent to the opposing counsel the they must search their archive of electronic data and present the results of that in electronic format.
This is then loaded into legal search tools such as concordance which can then be searched in detail and any item deemed relevant to the case is assigned a bates number and submitted as evidence.
This is your company’s data being used against you or your company. So now when you email your buddy and comment on the bosses PA and how she looks, that’s evidence that can be used against you for sexual harassment.
When you email you buddy saying that you have been shipping a product to a customer and you knew there was something wrong with it but decided to ship it anyway to meet deadline, and your company is sued, that friendly email or IM to your buddy is no longer private, it is now to be used in court and may very well cost you your job
So today when you IM or email your buddy or email your family letting them know how things are, keep in the back of your mind that since you are sitting in your office there is a very good chance what you are typing is being archived and may be used against you or your company.
Be it to a customer, family or friend, always wear your business hat when sending communication from your office because weather you know it or not Big Brother IS actually watching
Liam Finn
Computer User Solutions
Enterprisevaultfaq - We're searching for contributors
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Rob_Muller
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04-23-2009
11:17 AM
I read an article on Wired recently that talked about the dangers of all this social media. Sitting in a cafe he noticed a girl across the street taking pictures with her iPhone. So he used his and searched the location where he was at, her pictures showed up, geolocated on the map. From there he found her facebook and flickr pages. He found out where she lived, saw pictures of her family, of her things in her house, and that she was leaving recently on a trip.
People don't realize how much can be tracked by their use of electronic media. Articles like yours help people get a better idea of what's going on around them. Unfortunately, most people don't end up reading these types of articles.
Nicely written, thanks for the article.
People don't realize how much can be tracked by their use of electronic media. Articles like yours help people get a better idea of what's going on around them. Unfortunately, most people don't end up reading these types of articles.
Nicely written, thanks for the article.
