Corporate Communications and Ephemeral Data

Wendy is a frequent speaker and serves as a part-time instructor for an undergraduate business course offered by Penn State University’s World Campus on the topic of the social, legal and ethical environment of business. She has experience in eDiscovery and digital forensics in a wide array of workplace litigation matters, including harassment and discrimination defense, ADA claims, restrictive covenant and trade secrets matters, and other employment litigation. Wendy wrote the article WhatsApp Messages May Be Gone But Never Forgotten – At Least Not By the DOJ: Your Company’s 6-Step Action Plan | Fisher Phillips.She describes a six-step action plan for organizations:1. Audit current authorized applications2. Research technology solutions3. Implement policies4. Comply with record-keeping obligations 5. Train employees 6. Monitor and enforce employee complianceKey Takeaways:The pandemic led to the use of more workplace collaboration tools, which make E-discovery more difficult by expanding the volume and increasing the places data can be stored.Ephemeral messing apps make it harder to preserve and govern data generated by employees. If employers don’t provide tools that employees need, they will find their own, but consumer-level products do not provide the same controls as enterprise versions.Organizations should develop a robust Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) compliance program.The U.S. Department of Justice released the Monaco Memo that outlined the need for:Effective policies about using personal devices and third-party messaging applications for work;Employee training on these policies; andEnforcement of policy violations.