Why Social Media is a Goldmine for Evidence and Essential for Investigations

Social media has become a treasure trove for legal evidence, providing insights into to people's lives and behaviors, that can significantly impact investigations and litigation. Users are driven by algorithms to post engaging, often provocative content, leading to a wealth of incriminating evidence.

Before hash values, proving the authenticity of digital evidence could be tricky — especially if opposing counsel was determined to exclude the evidence.

Managing electronically stored information (ESI) is a challenge for most organizations today. Numerous, diverse data sources, from websites and social media accounts to internal chat platforms, are creating huge volumes of information, making eDiscovery, litigation readiness, and responding to requests for ESI difficult, if not impossible.

Did you know that nearly 1/3 of companies have been fined by courts or regulatory agencies because the organization couldn’t respond in time to requests for electronically stored information (ESI)?

Requesting production of documents and responding to requests for production (RFP) are key aspects of the discovery process, allowing both parties involved in a legal matter access to crucial evidence.

With the rise of social media, individuals have become increasingly comfortable sharing personal information online. However, this has also made them susceptible to social media impersonation, a growing phenomenon that can lead to identity theft and other online fraud. Impersonators can easily create fake profiles and use stolen personal information to deceive others. They may use this information to gain access to private accounts or even steal money.

If you're familiar with Microsoft Teams, you probably know about its built-in archive feature. By visiting the Microsoft Teams Admin Center (you need to be a Teams administrator to do this), you can quickly archive a team, which removes it from the active list and makes it read-only.

The adoption rate of Microsoft Teams over the last few years has been nothing short of astonishing. In 2019, just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft's collaboration platform had around 20 million users. As of 2022 (the most recent stats available), the number of active users sits at 270 million! This incredible growth is a testament to the benefits that Teams offers organizations—especially in an environment where many employees are working remotely.

Pagefreezer now offers Microsoft Teams archiving as part of its legal and compliance solutions.

The popularity of online channels—such as company websites, social media accounts, collaboration platforms, and messaging apps—grew steadily throughout the 2010s. But with the arrival of the COVID pandemic at the start of 2020, these online data sources became crucial to the day-to-day operation of countless organizations.