Why Give Your Adversaries A Heads Up? Metadata

He with the best information wins. So why are you handing over free data to your adversary? You may unknowingly be doing just that - in the form of METADATA - every time you email a document to a client or opposing counsel.

WHAT IS METADATA?

Metadata is best described as embedded information in a computer file. For example, metadata includes, but is not limited to, the name of the person who created the document, text from earlier drafts since removed, the creation date, the date last printed, and much more.Metadata is a fact of life and often helpful. But when you share documents, it's best to remove or at least minimize it because your adversaries and even your clients may also find it "helpful" to your detriment.

OKAY, SO HOW DO I MINIMIZE METADATA IN MY WORD DOCUMENTS?

Take author information for example. Microsoft Word stores it in no fewer than four locations — User Information Properties, Document Properties, Manager Document Properties, and Last Saved By Author Properties.You can change the first two of these properties to a meaningless generic name, which will also take care of Last Saved By Author. Unless you use document automation software or macros, you can safely ignore Manager Document Properties. Otherwise, you should check there as well.That's one tip. We have nine more to share. To remove metadata (hidden information) from legal documents, follow the instructions posted here:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA011400341033.aspx?pid=CH010918561033

Every so often, when we experience really good results, BNI will make a product or service recommendation. For metadata management, you can, of course, clean up your own documents to be emailed. For the busy professional law office, we've found one product that excels in database management iScrub - (http://www.esqinc.com/) Due to its central administration, you and your firm's team need not change the way you work with documents — iScrub automatically scrubs every document the same way when emailed.

BNI Investigators: Street smart, Web savvy.

Lina