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Computer SecretsComputerized documents (even letters) often include embedded electronic codes called metadata which can unintentionally reveal many secrets when transmitted by E-mail.The ability to alter or delete text during drafting can be a timesaver, but revisions are not necessarily what you want the recipient to know. Particularly when documents are standardized or reused, metadata can accumulate. The range of metadata is imposing: track changes showing changes in text; names of the last 10 people who worked on a document; recorded comments not intended as part of the text; different versions; the routing slip, etc. The potential mischief such information can create in unintended hands is monumental. Fortunately, stripping documents of metadata can be accomplished. We are advised that Microsoft Word users can do so by saving it in Rich Text Format (rtf). Or one can simply send the document as a pdf file. Microsoft also offers a play-in tool that can be downloaded free from Microsoft's web site. Some private companies also sell software that identifies and removes metadata. Metadata poses multiple risks. If you search for it, are you nebbing? If an accountant, engineer, or lawyer fails to confirm authenticity and origins by "peeking," is he negligent? And if he fails to cleanse metadata from documents he is sending, has he failed to be careful enough in protecting the privacy of client information? It's a new world out there, filled with technology and exciting possibilities — and troubling risks. Of course, you can protect your documents "the old-fashioned way," sending them by fax, or the U.S. Mail. |
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