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I L T A N E T . O R G
C
omputing power, capacity and efficiency
have been growing exponentially, with each
category doubling every one to two years
since the 1970s. Billions of people own
smartphones and by 2025, an estimated
80 billion devices will be connected to the internet. The
artificial intelligence market is forecasted to break $500
billion in the next two years. Our society is living proof that
the velocity of advancement is on a constantly accelerating
trajectory. And while it's true that the possibilities are
endless, it's also true that rapid technology innovation will
inevitably be accompanied by
a rapidly growing assortment
of unexpected and unknown
risks.
Take for example the
massive and expanding
landscape of emerging data
sources — collaboration
applications, chat tools, cloud-
based file shares and dynamic
productivity suites — and
their impact on investigations,
regulatory enforcement,
e-discovery, data privacy
and other areas of legal and
compliance risk. The rapid
and accelerating adoption and
evolution of these new platforms
have caused a flashpoint at which legal, compliance, IT
and security teams need to reorient to an entirely new and
constantly changing data landscape. This includes taking
inventory of what needs to be accomplished, assessing how
data is reviewed and analyzed, creating new workflows
and implementing new tools and technologies that can
accommodate data in this new paradigm.
Even if emerging data sources were changing at a
slower pace, they would still present significant challenges.
But the sheer velocity at which new applications emerge,
existing applications are updated and the ways they
are used change, makes it virtually impossible for most
organizations and their legal departments to manage the
risks. These risks are most acute in the following areas:
• Disputes and investigations. Compliance and
e-discovery controls, workflows and tools have not yet
been developed for many of the emerging data sources
that are now coming into scope
as sources of electronic evidence
in disputes and investigations.
Identifying, collecting,
processing, reviewing and
producing data from chat
threads, video conferencing
platforms and dynamic, cloud-
based productivity suites like
Microsoft 365 and Google
Workspace typically require
tailored approaches that stretch
the bounds of the Electronic
Discovery Reference Model
framework. Technical expertise
and a deep understanding of
the nuances of each platform
in scope is critical to creating
workflows that are effective, accurate and defensible.
Another issue in disputes and investigations is
the general uncertainty among attorneys, courts and
regulators of what data can and cannot be retrieved
from emerging data sources. A key foundation of
e-discovery is planning and information sharing
among relevant parties, but emerging data sources are
"Our society is
living proof that
the velocity of
advancement is
on a constantly
accelerating
trajectory."
