Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Document meta-data FAQ and risk information

That Word (or other document) you send may give away your confidential information and even leak personal information outside of your company. Many are aware that "metadata" is commonly embedded in certain document formats. (I recently received a document from a client that was riddled with metadata, including tracked changes that showed changes made by the other side's lawyer and "notes to draft" about certain clauses. It came from one of the leading firms in Canada, acting for a VERY large company that, ironically, is a major player in the data security area. But I digress ...) In any event, this has become a significant security risk. Workshare (maker of DeltaView and, coincidentally, a metadata remover called Workshare Protect) has established a "public benefit" site to provide information about content security risks. It's called MetadataRisk and is at http://www.metadatarisk.org. To give Workshare credit, there is no marketing material on the site and it has some good content. Thanks to PrivacySpot for leading me there ...

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