What is metadata?

Most software applications store information behind the scenes which you are not normally aware of. This information is used to run the application and provide the functionality that you see in day-to-day use.

This hidden information is generally called "metadata".

Although most applications store metadata to some extent, the main concern from the perspective of a lawyer is the wordprocessor; this being Microsoft Word in most modern law firms.

Problems arise when documents are sent outside of the firm by e-mail without the metadata being removed. Metadata that is not removed can be seen by the recipient of the document either in the normal course of working with the document or if the recipient looks specifically for hidden metadata.

Metadata can cause embarrassment and damage the reputation of the sender. The most notorious example of this is the Iraq Dossier published by the UK Government in February 2003 which was found to have been copied from an journal article posted by post-graduate student. Click here to read more about this.

Metadata Examples

Given that word processors represent the highest risk to lawyers in terms of metadata, and that Word for Windows is the most common word processor in use within law firms, we will look in a little more detail at the metadata which can be hidden within Word.

All versions of Word store metadata, although it has become easier to detect and remove in the most recent versions of the software.

Typical metadata found within a Word document may include:

• Identification information
  • Your name and initials
  • Your company name
  • The name/number of your computer
  • The file/network location where you saved the document
• The names of others who have worked on the document
• Document revision history
• Different versions of the same document
• Hidden text
• Comments e.g. drafting notes
• Template information
• Information that your document management system may insert e.g. original matter/client number and document categorisation information
• Smart Tags

Threats

• Compromised negotiating position

  If you send a document to the other side which contains information that you thought had been removed from the document but which can still be recovered, you may comprise your position or give away information unintentionally

• Embarrassment and brand damage

  Sending out a document with damaging metadata can imply a lack of care in document preparation and a lack of technical competence. Depending on the information found within the metadata, the situation could be highly embarrassing

Opportunities

• Gain negotiating advantage

  If you can discover what has been deleted from previous drafts or track the general history of changes to a document, you may discover information that you can use to your advantage.

  Many lawyers who purchased metadata discovery tools to protect their own outgoing documents are now using them to analyse and dissect incoming documents.

• Challenge bills

  You may be able to see from the hidden information who has been working on a document. This can often show that a more junior member of staff than the bill would indicate, has been working on the document

• Protect intellectual property

  How many lawyers take their precedents with them from firm to firm? The hidden information can often show where a document was originally created i.e. which firm, which user and which file name etc.

  If you have new lawyers joining your firm and bringing precedent documents with them, then you need to remove the metadata from these documents. Failure to do this means that your clients could see that you are sending out documents which were originally created in another firm.

Solutions

The most important thing is to understand the threat and ensure that anyone producing documents in the firm or sending documents outside of the firm understands the issues.

Good document design and good practice will avoid some of the problems.

One of the simplest things that can be done is to save all documents as PDF files before they are sent out of the firm.

However, to ensure that all metadata is removed from a document and to ensure that this is done at the correct time, most firms will need to use some specialist software designed for this task.

While it is possible to develop your own solution which removes some of the metadata from your documents, removing all of it is not so easy.

Some can be removed with a few lines of programming code in Word for example but other elements of it are much more difficult to remove and require an expert understanding of how Word stores information in documents and similarly export programming skills to remove it.

Most firms will therefore opt for a commercial product of which there are a number.

Please use our supplier directory to find a list of suppliers providing this type of software.

While all of these products remove some metadata, some remove more than others, some work better than others and some offer a range of additional features which may or may not be important to you.