Why Social Media Matters | John Hutchins

(Author's Note: This piece provides quantitative and qualitative considerations for why social media matters in information governance and eDiscovery.)

Not many born before 1990 would argue with the assertion that, in our lifetime, the Internet has changed just about everything.

Social media is a force unto itself, and if you’re in any kind of business, you simply must reckon with it. It’s changing everything, and it’s changing at breakneck speed.

If, up until now, you’ve been content to bury your head in the sand and declare that you “don’t do social media,” it’s time to reconsider. In fact, it’s past time.

>Click here for more on why social media matters.

EU/Swiss-U.S. Safe Harbor: More Scrutiny by the FTC? | Antony Kim, Dr. Christian Schröder

Companies that want to avoid procedural (and now substantive) scrutiny into their Safe Harbor-based personal data transfers do have other options. Fairly popular are the so-called EU Model Clauses.

>Click here for more on data transfers.

EU Court Rules that Website is Liable for Anonymous Comments | Peter S. Vogel

In spite of the fact that Estonian news site Delfi took down anonymous offensive and “allegedly defamatory” comments from its readers, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled that Delfi was liable for those comments.

>Click here for more on liability and anonymous website comments.

US Court Allows Google Earth Image as Evidence | John Ribeiro

An appeals court has ruled that Google Earth images, like photographs, can be used as evidence in a court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Thursday in an appeal by Paciano Lizarraga-Tirado, who claimed that he was on the Mexico side of the U.S.-Mexico border when he was arrested by U.S. agents some years ago on charges of illegal reentry.

One of the arresting agents had, however, testified in court that she recorded the coordinates of Lizarraga-Tirado's arrest using a handheld GPS device. To illustrate the location of those coordinates, the government introduced a Google Earth satellite image.

>Click here for more on Google Earth in Court.

Finding the ‘Big Data’ Balance | Lee Myrick

When it comes to unstructured data, that’s the human generated information found in emails, documents, photos and other formats – it’s typically not about predicting the future, but reacting to a complex event such as regulatory compliance or a cybersecurity breach. Often, the biggest struggle is not getting enough data but having too much.

>Click here for more on big data.

Abstracts, Mashups, and eDiscovery Software | @ComplexD

This week our cartoon and clip provides a look at one abstract way of sharing information (cartoon) and offers a short mashup of the estimated market size for eDiscovery software.

>Click here for more on the eDiscovery software market.

An Interview with US Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck | Chris Dale

eDiscovery Expert Chris Dale shares a short and informative interview with US Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck on topics to include Technology-Assisted Review.

>Click here to see the complete interview.

Finding Your Way with BYOA | Koos du Preez

The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend over the past decade gave people new freedom to incorporate their iPhones, Androids, iPads, BlackBerries and other personal devices into the work environment. With the now emerging BYOA (Bring Your Own App) trend, users feel similarly empowered to build their own app solutions for business problems the same way they may employ apps at home for personal use.

>Click here for more on Bring Your Own App (BYOA).

Technology to Help Lawyers Negotiate a Minefield of Data | Marianna Papadakis

Forensic technologist Craig Ball says advances in e-discovery systems will eliminate much of the waste when lawyers sift through irrelevant information.

Technology will eventually replace teams of lawyers deployed for document review, according to forensic technologists who say law firms are increasingly relying on data specialists to mine their huge data repositories to improve work flow, analyse clients and assess the potential success of cases.

“Using technology to flatten the human pyramid will serve to get lawyers back in touch with the evidence more quickly and at much reduced cost,” Texas-based forensic technologist and lawyer Craig Ball.

>Click here for more data minefields in eDiscovery.

The Legal Technology Professionals Institute

The Legal Technology Professionals Institute is a non-profit trade association created for and run by Legal Technology professionals to represent all participants in the legal technology industry, including providers and consumers of technology products and services, to develop and maintain operational and ethical standards, best practices, guidelines, resources, and forums under a non-profit umbrella.

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