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See the latest news and insights around Information Governance, eDiscovery, Enterprise Collaboration, and Social Media. 

What Is Metadata? And Why Is it Important?

If you deal with digital information at all, you’ve undoubtedly heard of metadata. But do you know exactly what it is? And do you understand the importance of it as it relates to litigation? To help unpack this often confusing term, we’ve put together the following metadata explanation for your review.

Legal Lessons Learned: 5 Times Digital Evidence Was Denied in Court

Cases involving online evidence have continued to increase at a rapid pace, aiding cases all the way from workplace harassment to copyright infringement. Digital evidence relevant to all these cases can come in a variety of forms; such as tweets, social media chat logs, instagram images, web pages, blog posts, Linkedin connections and a litany of others. But just like this evidence can make a case, it can also break the case.

Capturing Website & Social Media MetaData

What is Metadata? As our online activity skyrockets, so does the trail of valuable information that we leave behind when browsing, clicking, and sharing information. This is particularly true of social media platforms, where high frequency, personal and professional interactions can generate a huge amount of associated incidental data. This digital DNA of our online actions is what’s known as metadata. In simple terms, metadata is “a set of data that describes and gives information about other data.” How Does Metadata Relate To eDiscovery? In the world of digital evidence, metadata has a key role to play. It acts to give valuable information about a piece of content, beyond the element of the post, email, webpage or message that is visible to the naked eye. It’s this capacity to give the examiner a deeper contextual understanding of the content being invested that makes metadata so valuable – it helps paint a complete picture, for example, shedding light on user-added tracked changes or notes. In the world of digital evidence, there are 4 primary types:

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    Social Media Evidence Key Factor in Estimated 500,000 Litigation Cases Last Year

    These days, nearly every litigation matter involves social media evidence. If your case does not feature such important evidence, it is likely because you are not looking for it.

    Best Evidence Rule Requirements For Social Media Evidence

    What is the Best Evidence Rule (Or FRE 1002)? The Best Evidence Rule, as codified in Federal Rule of Evidence 1002 (FRE 1002), is a principle in the law of evidence that governs the admissibility of the contents of writing, recordings, and photographs in court.

    What is WARC and Why is it Important for Regulatory Compliance?

    If you’re trying to archive your website, whether for litigation readiness, corporate heritage, or you are just trying to make sure your website is compliant with your industry’s regulatory requirements, you will likely encounter a little ol’ file type called WARC (Web ARChive).