In today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, lawyer and legal technology legend Dennis Kennedy covers an automated metadata removal utility, a database that doesn't require programming, and monitoring software designed to keep your servers up and running. Don't miss the next issue.
Below you'll find one of the three articles from today's edition:
Metadata, Meet Your Match
By Dennis Kennedy
We regularly read news accounts of sensitive, confidential, or downright embarrassing information being exposed through poor metadata handling practices. Metadata is all that hidden data associated with your document files, including deleted text, comments, author name, date created, email addresses, and more.
We most often hear about it in connection with Microsoft Word documents, but metadata can also be found in PowerPoint presentations, and any other office suite that generates OpenDocument format (ODF).
3BView's 3BClean metadata management tool does what its name suggests. It helps you ensure that each document contains only the appropriate metadata or none at all if you prefer. When you email a document, 3BClean automatically monitors and cleans unnecessary metadata pursuant to your settings.
3BClean emphasizes automation. You can administer rules-based metadata policies for your entire office through a central administrator. No software is installed on user desktops and little or no user training is required. 3BClean can scale from single documents to thousands of documents. It also cleans email attachments sight unseen and even supports Webmail, BlackBerrys, and PDAs — a plus in this day and age as lawyers often send email with attachments when they are on the road, in court, or burning the midnight oil at home.
3BClean's smarts and versatility stem from the fact that it resides on a server. As a result, it also integrates with document management systems and works on Mac and Linux machines as well as Microsoft Windows. This centralized approach enables you to enforce firm-wide policies consistently both in and outside of the office.
In addition to metadata scrubbing, 3BClean can convert files, at your option, to a cleaned, secure PDF format for worry-free distribution. (Traditional PDF conversion does not remove metadata.)
In a new twist on the free trial, you can upload a document to 3BView's Web site to test 3BClean. You can also sign up for a free 2 week trial. Learn more about 3BClean.
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