Dive Brief:
- Increases in the types of electronic data and communications being sent and received by schools could complicate legal e-discovery proceedings in the future, broadening the information lawyers will seek to collect, says a new report
- In addition to standard communication often requested in e-discovery, the new types of content solicited could include text messages, Internet of Things data, conversations in professional chat apps and materials stored in the cloud.
- The report advises that administrators and IT departments should familiarize themselves with the types of information that they need to store in case of solicitation (and for how long) and creating a standard response to legal requests.
Dive Insight:
Universities and colleges can face many legal challenges, including suits brought by employees and students and criminal investigations requiring extensive data collection by authorities and attorneys. The rise in data collection and applications for online sharing — from messaging services such as Slack to Internet of Things-connected devices — has extended the types of useful information in such cases.
In others, it can form a central part of the case. Consider the explosion of Internet of Things-connected devices, which can cause weak spots for school networks and lead to security compromises. Given the way that IoT devices often communicate and share data amongst each other, schools must be vigilant in keeping abreast of how all their systems interact with each other and the data being collected and stored.