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Maybe you’ve heard about a thing called “metadata.” Say what? Usually, dropping buzzwords and using plain English is helpful, but not here – since metadata means “data about data” or “information about information.” Gee, thanks.

Metadata is actually the code or words contained in electronic documents that help the document function better somehow; for example, making it easier to search for the document on the computer. According to Catherine Sanders Reach, Director of the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center, “Metadata helps users save and retrieve documents more readily, by capturing information such as author, editor, “date created” and “date revised” in the hidden part of the document.

“However, other information about the document is also captured, such as additions, deletions, revisions, versions, comments, and other information about the document that an attorney may not want to share with others”

So, while metadata is useful, it can also be dangerous. Anyone with the inclination and a little know-how can look at metadata. Unfortunately, well-publicized stories of metadata embarrassments abound. Usually, they involve an electronic copy of Microsoft Word emailed or otherwise transmitted (intentionally or otherwise) to another person who exploits the information contained in the metadata to suit his or her own ends.

It’s not difficult to see that this could be particularly dangerous for lawyers, whose ethical duties to clients could be breached as well. Although South Carolina has not weighed in with an ethics opinion, the majority of states with opinions held that lawyers have a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid disclosing confidential information via metadata when transmitting electronic files. To see all existing opinions, visit the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center’s metadata ethics opinion comparison chart.

The question then is “how do I get rid of metadata?” (I wish to clarify that we are discussing the metadata in documents the attorney creates, not metadata which may be present in electronic evidence in a lawsuit, which may be subject to the federal and state rules or laws.)

Many “solutions” to the metadata problem aren’t practical – such as not transferring electronic files; scanning documents and saving in a new format; or copying and pasting into a plain text editor. A more realistic solution is to clean the documents before you share them. Microsoft attempted to address the issue with Office 2003 by releasing an add-in removal patch for Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. In the year since it was released, there have been many reports of it failing to do a complete job of metadata removal, so I do not recommend relying on it.

Office 2007 comes with more built-in metadata removal tools, including Document Inspector. For a more in-depth discussion and instructions on metadata removal in Office 2007, see http://bit.ly/1pS6OM.

For most lawyers, third party software remains the best means of removing or minimizing metadata. Two products to consider are Metadata Assistant by Payne Consulting  (priced from $80.00 for single workstation and more for enterprise-wide versions) and Workshare Protect (starting at $29.95).

While most of the problems with metadata arise from Microsoft software, to a lesser degree metadata is in other products as well, such as WordPerfect and PDF files. For pointers on dealing with WordPerfect, see www.corel.com and search for metadata in the knowledgebase.

Adobe Acrobat (PDF) is usually a secure format for transferring documents electronically if the document is secured or restricted. For more on securing Acrobat PDF files, see http://www.adobe.com/support/security/.

The most important thing to know about metadata is that it exists and to exercise caution when transferring electronic files, utilizing removal tools when necessary.

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