Blogs

Records management issues around the content created in social applications are getting a lot of attention these days. My previous post dealt with the retention of social content – content that, as I noted before, eventually becomes part of an organization’s electronically stored information (ESI). This time around, we take a look at three different approaches to the e-discovery of social content. Again, the intent is to address the needs of organizations in highly regulated industries, i.e. those that need to comply with FINRA or with the SEC guidelines.

Here I’ve created a similar table, with three different approaches firms should consider for the discovery of ESI created in social applications. The table highlights the relative merits and limitations of three different approaches firms should consider for the discovery of ESI created in social applications:

Recognize that while all firms have to retain certain content per the regulatory mandates, not all firms are subject to the same frequency of litigation; a particular firm might have a much smaller backlog of discovery requests. Thus the amount of time and energy, as well as the sophistication required, might vary dramatically between one firm and another. Conversely, remember that it takes only one really ugly discovery event for everybody and their sister to come forward and say, “I told you so.”