In part one of this series, we examined the importance of the concept of a custodian in traditional e-discovery and how it might be applied to modern collaboration platforms. In this installment, we will delve more deeply into the technical underpinnings of three popular collaboration tools—Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, and Slack—with a focus on some unique e-discovery challenges presented by each.

Part 2: Understanding hyperlinked files: Are links to documents "attachments"?

Among their many benefits, cloud-based platforms allow organizations to adopt more efficient data practices that reduce storage needs and associated costs. For example, instead of attaching native copies of documents to an email or conversation thread, users can, and increasingly do, provide links to the original file location. These are sometimes called "modern attachments" or files shared via hyperlink. (Note that files shared via hyperlink are not actually attachments as that term has traditionally been defined and used in discovery parlance.) This method presents a challenge when devising a plan to collect attachments from collaborative applications in e-discovery.