tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28611335.post-1148419700059860922006-05-23T17:02:00.000-04:002006-05-30T15:14:45.056-04:00For a couple of years now, the litigation support industry has been almost exclusively focused on email and electronic documents. We've been gorging ourselves on metadata to the point where we're suffering from electronic gout. Ok, I concede that electronic data is where we as litigation support managers, consultants and the industry needs to focus, because the issues related to "conventional" electronic data and records management are here to stay for the conceivable future.<br /><br />Nonetheless, we should be ever vigilant for the specter of dormant liability on the horizon. What I am I talking about? I'm referring to the next frontier of e-discovery - call (voice) logging systems. Yes, the ubiquitous, omnipresent voicemail box on your cell phone, in your office, in your home are all potential evidentiary records. At first blush you might not think so, but the federal government does. Just ask Gen. Michael V. Hayden, President Bush's choice to lead the CIA, who is a staunch advocate of domestic surveillance and probably the worlds leading expert in the value of voice logging systems. In the governments arsenal of tools are powerful classified voice transcription programs that convert and parse hundreds of thousands of calls simultaneously while extracting metadata as it relates to the conversations tracked. The metadata that is included in these calls and their associated logs can include the origination, routing and switching information, start, end times and call/message length, and this is just the beginning.<br /><br />Sophisticated computer algorithms can scan transmissions and recordings for speech patterns, inflections, intonations and nuances that identify not the just the language that is spoken, but the speakers identity (assuming a voice profile exists for a particular user) and, unbelievably, age and likely education levels. Military technology tends to be de-classified over time as new technologies supplant them. When this happens, that which was once classified, can be exploited in the public domain or private sector.<br /><br />The possibilities go on, but the purpose of this piece is not tout Big Brothers capabilities, but rather alert the reader to the fact that while we are currently focused on terabytes of digital evidence, we have yet to be deluged by petabytes of analog systems data that currently exists as discoverable information in the archives and on the active systems of the corporations that are the clients of the firms we work with. When one really thinks about it, how many preservation orders have you seen that contemplate the preservation of "...any volatile but potentially discoverable material, such as voicemail..."? Well George Socha's model preservation order does, see <a href="http://www.sochaconsulting.com/orders/model_data.html">http://www.sochaconsulting.com/orders/model_data.html</a> ...but come on now..., as a practical matter, how many times have you ever seen something like this used against parties that have failed to comply? What's more, how many of your colleagues or forensics companies are you aware of in our industry that have had occasion to make a forensically sound digital copy of the vm's from a corporate 512 channel voice logger?<br /><br />Will the deluge ever come? Are we on the precipice of the next frontier? I invite you to comment on what your experience has been and share your thoughts with the rest of the industry.<div class="blogger-post-footer">The contents of this blog are for commercial fair use only. Any for profit use must be cleared with the author. </div>Richard E. Davis, JDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10343318932502593370noreply@blogger.com