Peer to Peer Magazine

PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 16 BEST PRACTICES first metadata management applications appeared on the market. Better, faster ways of communicating and connecting coupled with the emergence of smart devices have ushered in a new way of working and a new set of challenges. Our world is now mobile. We work from home, on trains and planes, between meetings and from cafes. We connect to email through laptops, smartphones, tablets and Web browsers. Often we do not use computers and phones provided by the firm. More and more, we bring our own devices to work and utilize public Wi-Fi. It is estimated that 90 percent of smartphone owners access the same email account on mobile and desktop, according to Mike Popalardo's article, "Maximizing Mobile Email Marketing." In fact, more people use their smartphones to read and write email than to make calls. NEW WORKFLOW, NEW CHALLENGES Mobile devices do not introduce new or different metadata types to be removed from documents. It is the workflow that has changed. For example, an associate creates a document intended to be sent to a client. The document is sent via email message to a partner for a final review. No metadata cleaning occurs, as most metadata cleaning solutions do not clean documents transmitted within the firm. The partner reviews the document on a mobile device, is satisfied and forwards it to the client. If the partner does not have metadata cleaning software on the mobile device, no cleaning will occur. Important data might have just been leaked. Not surprisingly, law firms are embracing metadata management software as a must-have technology. While the media focus on metadata related to the tracking of your cellphone activity, shopping patterns and banking transactions, less attention is paid to metadata in documents. Document metadata includes who created, edited and printed the document and its various revisions, track changes and comments. These metadata types might not be visible on the page, but they are visible to anyone with a basic knowledge of technology. Just when we thought we had metadata under control in the office, a new threat emerges: mobile devices. Mobile email is on the rise, and so are the dangers of document-related metadata leaks. HIDDEN DATA FOR ALL TO SEE Let's try an experiment. Select and copy a group of cells from an Excel spreadsheet. Open a Word document and select "Paste Special – Microsoft Excel Workbook Object." The cells you selected are now in your Word document, and perfectly formatted as they were in Excel. Now, double-click on the spreadsheet in the Word document – voila! The entire Excel spreadsheet is visible, not just what you selected. How many times have you performed a similar copy and paste? THE AGE OF MOBILITY The technology landscape has shifted significantly in the 16 years since the About the Author Dean Sappey is the President and co-founder of DocsCorp, which develops a range of document productivity and security tools for law firms. Contact him at dean.sappey@docscorp.com. Managing Metadata That's on the Move Search the Web for metadata leaks, and you will see some high-profile incidents involving international bodies, governments, the military, corporations and financial institutions. IT departments are on notice that metadata leaks have the potential to damage reputations.

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