The following is an excerpt from “Protecting Intellectual Property in the Age of Employee Mobility: Forms and Analysis,” a treatise on employee mobility and protecting intellectual property in the digital age published by ALM.

Metadata, or “data about data,” refers to “[s]econdary data that organize[s], manage[s], and facilitate[s] the use and understanding of primary data.” FN:1Metadata contains useful information about a document that may include “how long the document is, who the author is, and when the document was written, as well as a short summary of the document.” FN:2Metadata stored on a computer can be found in documents, PDFs, web pages, browsing history, photos, videos and emails. While the content of a communication or field is obviously important, information about the file itself may be equally important to protecting corporate assets. When analyzed in conjunction with known events or facts, metadata can persuasively speak to who wrote a file, when they wrote it, and in some cases why a file was created or a communication was sent. Metadata can also reveal crucial information about when a document was last accessed, modified, or transmitted—information that can be useful in detecting employee data theft. In other words, metadata can help to read between the lines, to show “imbedded [sic] edits and other non-screen information that are integral elements of the [Electronically Stored Information] documents.” FN:3

LIMITS OF METADATA

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