The hidden issue of file metadata
Category Coming Soon Metadata
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Michel-Adrien Sheppard of Ottawa, Canada, writes an interesting blog on file management issues in the law industry. Like most people in this area he is concerned about hidden file metadata and writes about it here. Michel is a reference librarian at the Supreme Court of Canada, so I guess he should know!
Metadata is typically created for you without asking and can tell people who know about these things all sorts of information about your documents - some of which you might not want to reveal. For example, it can show change tracking comments or who originally created a document. There is a very large amount of potential data stored - and it can get worse depending on how you share documents. For example, email systems can add their own metadata along the way.
The forthcoming MetaData Explorer tool
To help with all this we're developing a MetaData enhancement to SPACEWatch Storage Suite that will let you explore what's going on right from your regular SPACEWatch interface. Using the MetData Explorer you'll be able to spot when documents break your metadata guidelines - and even scrub the metadata out of the documents, if you want to go that far.
Keep a look out for this interesting enhancement later in the year --- if you want to be one of the first to try it out let us know and we'll consider you for the pre-release trials. Just email support@sharpeware.com giving details of why you're interested and the sort of infrastructure you would be using it on.
By the way there are lots of examples that you can find on the web of embarassing metadata moments. This one describes the infamous Tony Blair Iraq Dossier issue. A good site to start investigating this issue in more detail is metadatarisk.org.
Bookmark :
Michel-Adrien Sheppard of Ottawa, Canada, writes an interesting blog on file management issues in the law industry. Like most people in this area he is concerned about hidden file metadata and writes about it here. Michel is a reference librarian at the Supreme Court of Canada, so I guess he should know!
Metadata is typically created for you without asking and can tell people who know about these things all sorts of information about your documents - some of which you might not want to reveal. For example, it can show change tracking comments or who originally created a document. There is a very large amount of potential data stored - and it can get worse depending on how you share documents. For example, email systems can add their own metadata along the way.
The forthcoming MetaData Explorer tool
To help with all this we're developing a MetaData enhancement to SPACEWatch Storage Suite that will let you explore what's going on right from your regular SPACEWatch interface. Using the MetData Explorer you'll be able to spot when documents break your metadata guidelines - and even scrub the metadata out of the documents, if you want to go that far.
Keep a look out for this interesting enhancement later in the year --- if you want to be one of the first to try it out let us know and we'll consider you for the pre-release trials. Just email support@sharpeware.com giving details of why you're interested and the sort of infrastructure you would be using it on.
By the way there are lots of examples that you can find on the web of embarassing metadata moments. This one describes the infamous Tony Blair Iraq Dossier issue. A good site to start investigating this issue in more detail is metadatarisk.org.
