eDiscovery: the digital era of information disclosure

eDiscovery, also known as electronic information disclosure, is an innovative technology that involves the process of identifying, creating, collecting and verifying information that is stored electronically, i.e. ESI. The need for its appearance on the market is largely due to the accelerated growth of digital communications and mass storage of data on computers, in the cloud environment. This solution has received widespread use in the field of jurisprudence, litigation, as well as in various areas of business, at enterprises and elsewhere. eDiscovery will be indispensable wherever there is a need to process huge amounts of digital data.

That is, electronic disclosure of information is the process of collecting information stored in electronic correspondence, in various documents, text messages, social networks, databases and many other sources. The emergence of such technology on the market has become a necessity, because as such digital assets have grown, their management has become much more complicated. As a result, this has negatively affected the efficiency of solving the tasks. If you organize eDiscovery as correctly as possible, you will be able to get the fastest possible access to any information and be sure that important moments will never be missed.

In today's review, we will get to know the electronic disclosure technology itself and its key components in more detail. We will tell you how eDiscovery can help modern business. We will compare the main subscription options and tell you in detail about the functionality that you will receive if you choose one or another option for yourself. The information provided will allow you to get a more detailed understanding of such an advanced technology as eDiscovery and assess its potential for practical use in your area of professional activity.

Why eDiscovery is becoming increasingly popular

In parallel with the fact that information began to move en masse to digital formats, the cloud environment, classical detection methods have lost their positions too much. Moreover, many of them have already completely lost their relevance and cannot be used in practice. They are being replaced en masse by automated solutions that are capable of processing huge arrays of digital data, identifying the necessary information in them, structuring it and transmitting it to a person in the most visual and easily perceived form.

Electronic information disclosure technology can also ensure the most reliable and secure data storage. This has become extremely relevant in the context of modern cyber wars, when the actions of intruders are becoming increasingly sophisticated, extraordinary, which allows them to bypass many security systems that businesses use in practice and gain access to secret and other particularly sensitive information. We must also not forget about the likelihood of damage, destruction or modification of information, important documentation, which can entail serious consequences, including legal ones.

All these features have contributed to the fact that eDiscovery is becoming an increasingly popular solution in the modern market in various fields. But to determine the feasibility of its use in practice in your particular circumstances, you need to delve deeper into this topic.

How eDiscovery Works: Main Components

The electronic disclosure technology itself was developed by specialists with one key goal: to ensure the most reliable storage of digital information, as well as its careful processing while maintaining integrity and relevance. The entire eDiscovery process can be divided into a number of key stages:

1. Identification. This is the very first stage, within which a search for potential sources of electronic information will be carried out. This involves processing information located on corporate servers, in the cloud environment, and even on personal devices. The main thing is that it is directly related to the issue that is being processed at a given moment in time. Thanks to advanced tools, the methodology manages to filter huge amounts of data, extracting from them only the information that is needed at a given moment in time.
2. Saving the received data. This is done to prevent changes to this information or destruction of relevant digital information assets. Thanks to this, you will always know that the information important to you will be securely stored and will not be destroyed or damaged.
3. Collection. The collection of electronic digital data must be supplemented in such a way as to preserve its reliability and authenticity. If we talk directly about the use of eDiscovery in jurisprudence, then methods are used that comply with current judicial standards. This is what will subsequently guarantee the passage of a legal review, among other things, confirming the authenticity of the information received.
4. Processing digital data. At this stage, all the information that was at your disposal after collection is prepared for subsequent analysis. In particular, the most suitable data storage formats are selected here, after which the source files are converted. After that, you will be able to find and view information using specialized tools and software solutions that eDiscovery offers to users.
5. Viewing. This stage can be called one of the most labor-intensive, as it will include studying all the received and processed material for its relevance when performing certain work. It is also important to assess the issue of confidentiality, so as not to fall under certain sanctions in the future. At this stage, either manual verification or an automated solution can be used. In the first case, the work will be more painstaking, but you can be sure that the final version will contain only reliable and important information. Automation does not provide such guarantees, but it significantly speeds up the work process as a whole.
6. Production. This is the last stage of eDiscovery, which involves transforming the received digital information into the formats most acceptable to you. Alternatively, you can give some documents the status “for review”, and others — provide privileged access rights, etc.

How can eDiscovery technologies help modern business?

eDiscovery tools as reliable business assistants

To implement eDiscovery within a particular business, companies began to use specialized software solutions designed to automate many processes, routine and similar tasks, while saving time for their implementation. In parallel with this, material costs are also reduced, which is especially noticeable in comparison with manual methods. eDiscovery will be an excellent assistant in the process of collecting, identifying, producing and processing data. With the help of such a tool, it will be possible to identify patterns in large arrays of data. At the same time, you can be sure that the collected information will be as accurate as possible, since the human factor and the associated errors are excluded here. The time required to perform these tasks, including information processing, is also significantly saved.

It is also convenient that as current requirements and trends in your niche change, such tools can be adapted to new regulations and rules, ensuring stable operation of eDiscovery in new conditions. In order to minimize risks and increase the efficiency of all implemented processes in practice, several strategic solutions can be used:

• Development of specialized eDiscovery protocols. In this case, we are talking about establishing special comprehensive policies in accordance with the requirements of electronic disclosure of information to ensure proper storage and management of digital information. Thanks to this solution, all data will be highly accessible to users. At the same time, their integrity is guaranteed, which simplifies subsequent use in business processes.
• Regular training of personnel, familiarization with new settings, parameters. This is the easiest way to teach your employees all the intricacies and nuances of working with eDiscovery, explain to them the critical importance of flexible data management. This is what ultimately improves compliance with regulatory requirements and minimizes potential risks, including those associated with data leakage, its damage, improper storage.
• Implementation of advanced eDiscovery technologies. After more complex electronic disclosure tools appeared on the market, the entire process of searching, viewing and managing electronic data received maximum order, which positively affected the efficiency of their use. We are talking about technologies that not only speed up many business processes, but also increase their accuracy, minimize time and material costs.
• Organization of joint work. And if desired, it is possible to ensure sufficiently close coordination between different specialists and departments to ensure effective teamwork and compliance with eDiscovery regulatory requirements.

If you have already assessed the prospects of this technology and want to try it in your work, then it is time to compare eDiscovery subscriptions and choose the best option for yourself.

eDiscovery subscription options: which solution should you choose?

Today, eDiscovery offers its subscribers 2 main tariff plan options:

1. Standard. It involves the use of the basic search functions and export of found information. With its help, you will be able to identify electronic data, assign discovery managers for specific cases that will be able to access only those files, legal cases, business projects, participants of which they will be directly. It will also be possible to link the search and export of information to a specific project, and, if necessary, block the discovery of electronic information in the places of its storage.
2. Premium. In this case, the service is based on the existing capabilities of case management, search, export, and data storage in eDiscovery Standard. Users receive a comprehensive working solution that allows them to identify, save, collect, view, analyze, and export materials that meet their current requests and urgent tasks. Collection and copying of data from the service will be performed in real time, forming so-called “check sets”, which can be filtered and marked. Such a solution will allow you to discard irrelevant content from subsequent use. eDiscovery Premium also includes analytics and predictive coding models powered by machine learning, allowing you to narrow your research scope to the smallest possible extent, bringing only relevant content into your work.

Now let's take a closer look at the functionality of each subscription option.

eDiscovery Standard Features and Capabilities

Those who choose the Standard eDiscovery subscription option will be able to solve the following production tasks:

• Content search. You will be able to find information stored in Exchange mailboxes, OneDrive business accounts, as well as any sites related to SharePoint, Microsoft 365 Groups, Microsoft Teams. Viva Engage Teams. This can be data created by third-party Microsoft 365 applications stored both in email and on sites.
• Search statistics. After completing the direct search for information, you will be able to study the statistics of the collected data, including the number of files, their total size based on key search terms. Statistics also include content placement, where these results will be located, as well as the number of items that match different parts of the entered search query.
• Search conditions and keyword queries. You will be able to form search queries based on keywords. That is, the system will search for those documents in the context of which the phrases you specified are contained. If necessary, you can set additional conditions, which will significantly narrow the search area.
• Export of received results. The collected information can be transferred to any of the local computers of the corporate network in 2 stages. Initially, the elements are copied from their original location in Azure (to your own Microsoft 365 storage). And only after that you will be able to download these files to your device.
• Case management. Existing eDiscovery cases allow you to link individual search queries and export specific studies. You will also be able to assign access rights to a specific group of people working on the same project. That is, only certain people will be able to view the contents of documents. Note that this option in the Premium package will also support the integration of creating new cases together with Microsoft Purview Internal Risk Management.
• Role-based permissions. It is possible to use RBAC technology, which involves granting permissions to manage access based on pre-defined roles. This is what will help to more flexibly manage current tasks in the context of discovering the necessary electronic data, while the work itself will be performed by different users. It will also be possible to use a built-in group of roles or individually create custom groups, assigning different permissions in the process of discovering the necessary electronic data.
• Placing content on hold. In this case, we are talking about ensuring reliable protection of information stored in electronic form from accidental, and in some cases even from intentional damage, deletion directly during work with data.

As you can see, even in the Standard version, the user gets quite broad opportunities for collecting and analyzing information, structuring it, distributing it, storing it. However, the Premium subscription will have much broader capabilities.

Features and capabilities of eDiscovery Premium

All the options that are present in the eDiscovery Standard package will also be relevant for the Premium subscription. Therefore, we will not repeat ourselves here, but will highlight only those functions and capabilities that are specific to Premium:

• User management. Here we are talking about those people who will have access to information and the entire process of its processing. When you add new users and data sources to one project that are not directly related to it, you will be able to set a certain rule for interaction. In particular, set restrictions on the collection of information that is not directly related to a particular project. This is what will eliminate the possibility of leakage of important information in the event that the same documents may be required when working with different projects.
• Extended indexing. If new sources of information that are not directly related to its storage are added to the work, the related content will undergo repeated extended indexing. This is necessary in order to perform additional processing of information in order to increase its visibility during data collection or research. This way, you can be sure that the system will see and add really important and valuable data for storage, i.e. it will not be missed.
• Notifications about information retention based on certain restrictions. This is what will significantly simplify the entire process of interaction between users and the documentation in storage. Within the framework of this notification, users will be required to save all the information that is directly related to the project that is currently being worked on. The manager of such a project will be able to track all notifications that will be sent, read and acknowledged by a particular user. The entire data exchange process in the eDiscovery Premium package will allow you to create and send initial reminder notifications in the event that users fail to confirm a hold notification.
• The ability to create document sets for subsequent review. We have already mentioned that any information that is collected automatically must be subject to additional review to determine its compliance with the working project. As a result, special data sets for review will be created that are associated with a specific project. In this case, your information will be moved to a secure Azure storage provided by Microsoft Corporation. When you subsequently add new data to such a set, it will be automatically copied from the original storage location and transferred to this storage. The review set itself can then be found as a separate element and additionally filtered, tagged, or other actions can be performed, including those related to analysis and prediction of relevance using specialized predictive coding models. You will have complete control over the entire process of working with the verification set, constantly monitoring all files that will be added to it or, on the contrary, deleted.
• Error correction. In the event that certain data problems are detected directly within the workflow, including those that prevent important electronic data from being identified or their contents from being processed correctly during advanced indexing. This means that you will be able to quickly fix them, returning the original functionality of the workflow. Alternatively, these may be files that were initially password-protected. They cannot be processed in this form. Therefore, you will be able to download them here even if you receive an error, and then remove the password protection and save the already corrected files.
• Cloud attachment support. In this case, when adding information to the data set, you will be able to include cloud attachments or linked files here. Thanks to this, the target file will be immediately moved to the data set for subsequent verification. By the way, you can also add any versions of SharePoint documents here, also sending them for verification. This is what will allow you to get huge amounts of data from the maximum number of possible volumes of sources.
• Text recognition. This is an option that will allow you to recognize text content in files saved as an image. This can be either the text itself from the image or the content itself. All this will be automatically added to the verification set. That is, in this case, you will be able to search for the necessary electronic information even if it is stored as graphic content.
• Collection reporting and statistics. Once you have a collection in your verification set, you can examine its statistics on the extracted elements. Alternatively, this could be storing information in a repository containing a large number of elements that match the search conditions. Basically, you can create a lot of reports here, creating them in accordance with the requirements and nuances that are relevant to you at a given time. You will also be able to view the entire subset of results.
• Conversation threads. This is relevant for cases where information such as messages from chats, conversation records are used. All of this can also be added to the verification set, which will ultimately allow you to collect the entire flow of correspondence or direct communication. That is, the entire chat conversation will be added to the verification set, where elements that match the conditions that you previously specified will be identified.
• Filtering information in the verification set. We have already mentioned above that, if desired, you will be able to make adjustments to such a package, structure the data, and filter it. In the latter case, you will be able to send for display only those sets of elements that will meet the conditions you have specified. And, if necessary, the initially specified filters can be saved for future use. That is, if you constantly need to perform the same type of work, then this way you can significantly simplify and speed it up. And even if another specialist is involved in such work, he will be able to easily navigate the upcoming work and see which content elements were the most important at the previous stage.
• Tags. In this case, tags are what will allow you to add appropriate signatures to files, overlook irrelevant content, and focus exclusively on the information that will be important to you at a given time. At the moment when specialists review the information collected in the verification set, they can add their own comments to it, which will be recorded as tags. Alternatively, if the documents contain files that do not meet today's requirements, they can be marked as "outdated", after which the system will not add them to your results.
• Predictive coding models. This tool should be used when there is a need to reduce large volumes of possible options, adding to the verification set only those solutions that will be the highest priority in this process. This is achieved by using machine learning tools, which will be the basis for predictive coding models. As a result, predictive assessments are created for each element present in the verification set. Thanks to this, it will be possible to add information to the filter system based on the forecast assessment, thereby gaining access to the most relevant data, excluding irrelevant ones.
• Analytics. In this case, we are talking about the fact that eDiscovery has specialized tools that allow you to analyze documents included in the verification set, thereby ensuring good ordering and high approval rates. As a result, the volume of stored data is reduced, repeating groups of similar documents are deleted. That is, thanks to this, the entire verification process becomes more efficient. Thus, all data flows that go through electronic correspondence are checked, it will be possible to understand the entire context of conversations that were conducted in this environment. The topic function allows you to personalize the topics of documents stored in the verification set and assign them a corresponding value. In the future, you will be able to view not only these documents, but also everything that will relate to related topics. That is, the verification process will be optimized and accelerated.
• Ensuring transparency for long-term tasks. All eDiscovery tasks are a fairly long process that involves not only identifying information, but also adding access to it to certain categories of users, assigning them the appropriate access rights, training predictive coding models, adding new content to the verification set, and conducting analytical research. Now you can track the solution of all these tasks, receiving corresponding notifications if any errors or problems are detected. If necessary, you can contact Microsoft support for competent assistance.
• Computed metadata. Such eDiscovery features as advanced indexing, analytics, conversation threading, predictive coding can be added to the documents of the verification set for metadata metrics. They in turn will contain information related to the actions of a specific feature. At this stage, you will be able to apply filters based on metadata to the documents when viewing them to get a selection of documents that meet your queries. If desired, you can import metadata into other applications to perform the same selection based on it, but within a different data set.
• Export to a personal Azure user storage. When exporting information from a verification set, you can initially open your own account, that is, the one that is managed by your company. In addition, eDiscovery will help you customize the information for export, including your own files, metadata, tags, text content, edited documents, PDF files.

If all these options are relevant to your work, then you should still choose the eDiscovery Premium package. Everything is very individual here, since many organizations will be quite satisfied with the standard capabilities of this tool.

Summing up

The modern digital world is developing very actively, requiring the consumer market to instantly adapt to current trends. And one of those solutions that many modern companies should pay special attention to is rightfully called EDiscovery. With the help of this technology, the process of conducting internal investigations within a particular company, ensuring compliance with current standards and requirements for responding to litigation and many other tasks will be solved as quickly and efficiently as possible.

If you manage to deeply delve into this methodology and select the right tools for the job, then you can optimize many processes and reduce the risk of losing important business information. That is, EDiscovery will be indispensable where an enterprise would like to ensure decent security indicators in the digital era, learn how to effectively manage digital evidence. As the complexity of data grows, having your own well-thought-out EDiscovery strategy may well become a key element in Ensuring accurate processing of large volumes of critical information.

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