Metadata

Attorney Jonathan Hauer on the dangers of metadata:

Usually, metadata is innocuous and helpful, such as when you want a coworker to see the changes you made to her document or if you want to see the date a document was created to understand if you're dealing with the most recent version. In those instances, the program's automatic tracking functions improve our workflow.

But other times — like when you're in the heat of negotiation — that information can be unnecessarily revealing. For example, if you just sent a Word document to a party with whom you're negotiating a purchase and forgot to turn off "Track Changes," you may have just clued your adversary in to your thought processes. So when the adversary calls you with a counteroffer that just happens to match a price you thought you deleted from the document, you'll understand where he got it.

Additionally, metadata often will reveal information such as the name of the computer on which the document was created, the document's author, the dates it was created and modified, and the identities of those who accessed and printed the document. While often innocuous, that information can communicate volumes to a business or legal adversary. In the legal arena, clients may inadvertently waive attorney-client privilege by sending an adversary metadata revealing comments left by their counsel.