As companies increasingly adopt cloud technology in the workplace, it’s becoming increasingly important to understand where important employee content is stored in the cloud. In a legal dispute, eDiscovery involves locating and producing relevant data. This blog post will discuss the top eDiscovery sources for locating vital employee content in the cloud.
- Email accounts: Email is often a key source of evidence in eDiscovery, and employees may have important information stored in their email accounts that is relevant to a case. This may include emails exchanged with colleagues, clients, or customers and attachments such as documents, images, or audio recordings. Pinpoint Harvester is a widely used eDiscovery tool that collects email accounts. It can search through various popular email formats and extract only the messages and comments that meet specific criteria.
- Cloud storage platforms: Employees may store essential files and documents in such platforms as Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive. These platforms may contain many data types, including documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. Using eDiscovery collection tools like Pinpoint Cloud Collector and SharePoint Collector defensibly and securely collects these vital employee sources.
- Social media accounts: Social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter, may contain information relevant to a case, including personal or company-related communications. This may include public or private posts, comments, or direct messages.
- Collaboration tools: Tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Asana may contain critical communications and collaboration between employees that could be relevant to the case. These tools may also contain shared files, images, or audio recordings.
- Company-specific systems: Companies may have their custom systems for storing and managing data, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, human resources management systems (HRMS), or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. These systems may contain a wide range of data types, including customer information, employee data, financial information, and more.
It’s important for companies to have a clear understanding of where their data resides and to implement data retention policies and procedures to ensure that essential data is preserved and accessible when needed. By proactively identifying the potential legal implications of cloud-based data storage, companies can minimize the risks associated with a legal dispute and be prepared to quickly locate and produce relevant employee content in the event of an eDiscovery request.
With the increasing use of cloud technology in the workplace, it’s becoming more important than ever for companies to understand where their data is stored and how it can be accessed in case of a legal dispute. By considering the top eDiscovery sources discussed in this blog post, companies can take steps to ensure they are prepared for any eventuality.