Social Networking in the Age of Electronic Discovery

There is a lot of concern about the impact of social networking sites on litigation and electronic discovery today.  Thoughts of what and how to collect and of course some concern about removing content after litigation has begun.  As with anything an individual can do, I always advise: take pride but take care in what you post and who has access to it. Social networking sites were an odd, curious thing a mere 5 years ago. Now social networking is such a huge part of our culture and daily lives that you have supposed new and better options popping up daily to compete with the juggernauts of the social networking industry.  There are firms such as Atos, a French technology firm where the CEO is advocating a zero email policy for internal communication and advocating postings on social networking sites as a replacement for internal email. This comes at a time when many social networking sites are constantly under attack by malicious individuals or groups intent on accessing information they ought not have. You have attorneys who are advising clients in the midst of litigation to remove pictures that may harm their claims and judges who are instructing litigants to hand over their passwords to their social networking sites to their opposition as a part of discovery.  All the while things as simple as preserving and collecting information as a process and available technology are still works in progress.

There are no easy answers, but more thought provoking questions each day. The best we can all do is stay alert and adapt as we go forward.

Atos Adopts Zero email Policy

Sanctions levied against Attorney and Client

Court directs litigants to hand over Facebook passwords to their adversaries