E-Discovery Confronts A Data Nightmare

Data-mining yesterday’s email is child’s play compared to what is now required from information governance and e-discovery programs. Social media platforms are just a piece of it, and even within that niche, formerly defined by Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the number of new apps is increasing rapidly. WeChat and WhatsApp are said to have more than a billion users each, and others have been entering the space or are in the wings, some of them based outside the U.S.

Also part of the “digital tsunami” are the short video platforms, like TikTok (more than a billion users), and the so-called ephemeral messaging programs. Their users are likely to assume that what they communicate will not be discoverable, and there have been cases where their use been grounds for an adverse inference determination, although according to this post information sent by way of these platforms may not be fully destroyed.

Another category of potentially discoverable data falls under the heading of IoT (Internet of Things). It has already played a part in a number of cases, including personal injury and property disputes that used trucking logistic trackers.