Re: " It is not something the user consciously is adding."

I think this posting gets to the heart of the matter. Are we not letting
ourselves become victims of the technology tools, just because the software
vendor put them in the technology?

Example: Someone says to you "Write me a letter about your concerns and mail
it to me through the Post Office." So you do this - write the letter, (maybe
with a pen on paper), stuff it in the envelope, attach the stamp and mail
it. Upon arrival, the person calls you by phone and says "Hey, where is the
composition tracking information, the audit trail about who touched the
letter, and the data regarding the time you mailed it at the Post Office?"
Your reply - "Wait a minute, I never volunteered to track and provide you
with all of that stuff! And my management wants to know why you are
interested in our internal business processes regarding my correspondence
methods, our staff business activities, and the timing of our movements to
and from the Post Office!"

Just because metadata is there does not mean it is wanted, useful, or
without burdens. It was working with an attorney where I first heard the
phrase "scrubbing the data". They are very concerned about client privacy
and conflicts of interest and want to minimize the risks posed by
technologies.

It increasingly appears that metadata is a lot like the records it
characterizes - it costs to maintain it and can be a business risk, so in
some cases, it SHOULD NOT BE RETAINED. If you have the records you may have
to produce them. If you have the metadata, you may have to explain it.
Unless it actually adds value to your organization or business processes,
why keep it?

John

****************************
John Phillips
Information Technology Decisions
www.infotechdecisions.com
865-966-9413


-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Dana Yanaway
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 3:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Metadata in the courts

Dwight, I, respectfully, disagree about the scrubbing of metadata being akin
to erasing signatures from contracts. The metadata is applied by the
application through the process of drafting a document. It is not something
the user consciously is adding.  So, I'm not sure scrubbing metadata
violates fundamental records principals of integrity & authenticity. I do
see your point and think there is some validity to it. (Thanks for brining
that up, this is the whole purpose for raising the discussion). However,
again, the metadata in question is not something the business process chose
to put in place. It is something which happens through the normal course of
the application or systems.  If the policy were to only store pdf/A
documents as records and all born digital (word processing documents) needed
to be saved to pdf/A format then you would be losing much of this associated
metadata.

As Jesse points out, the question is "..what part of an electronic record is
the record?" If the metadata is the record (or is clearly a significant part
of the record) then there is a need to retain it. If, however, the record
consists only of the text on the page and the underlying metadata is not
"record material" then why retain it? Of course there can be some serious
questions about when you will know what is record worthy and when you will
know that. Often hind sight will prove something to be record worthy when at
the time the user thought it only good for the waste bin.

I absolutely agree that the practice of scrubbing metadata with the sole
purpose of eliminating litigation risks can be perceived to raise some red
flags. On the other hand, if there is no pending litigation, what is wrong
with getting rid of information when there are no legal, operational or
historical requirements  to retaining it? Isn't that what your records
retention schedule is supposed to be doing? Reducing risk through the
elimination of information which is no-longer necessary?

I guess like many things, it depends on the situation for each organization.
There will be some, where the retention of the metadata is the expected
process because it provides valuable information about the development of
the document, whereas there will be other organizations where the opposite
is true and the final content of the document is all that matters and the
organization wants to not leave behind a trail of breadcrumbs about how it
got to that state. Each organization will need to make its own decision,
bearing in mind, the legal requirements, one of which may be certain case
law stating metadata must be produced in a lawsuit under certain
circumstances, and your in ability to do so may lead to consequences.

(fascinating discussion all around)

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