Governments and Archiving: “Can we afford it?”

Because your agency’s online content is increasing both in complexity and volume, and because governments are held accountable for the information they publish on the web, you need to employ a records retention policy.

So say the industry experts. But for local government leaders, it’s hard to take the advice to heart when faced with a budget that barely allows room for a functioning emergency services department. The economic downturn of 2007 caused a ripple effect felt by nearly every municipal agency. Attempting to adjust city budgets in response to huge deficits, communities have

Considering these budget strains (and the stressed-out citizens attending the town hall meetings) how can agencies be expected to concern themselves with records retention? Is it that important? The answer is: yes. Your agency’s online content (including social media, which more governments are now embracing) are considered to be public records — and the responsibility to properly preserve those records cannot be underestimated.

Think of records retention for your agency as an investment like health insurance. Sometimes it’s hard to justify that monthly expense, and you wonder if it’s worth it — until someone lands a $12,000 hospital bill for an appendectomy. You don’t want to get caught without proper insurance to cover it.

Similarly, municipalities need to consider the potential costs of being caught unprepared in litigation or e-discovery proceedings. Consequences can include being made to pay attorney and litigation expenses, or being compelled to purchase e-discovery services (wouldn’t it be better to do that at your discretion?)

If your agency is found to be negligent in handling online records, you could face expenses that exacerbate your everyday budget woes, not to mention an enormous legal headache and bad publicity. Just like you would make every effort to guard against the possibility of disaster by investing in health insurance, so should government invest in a web archiving policy against the possibility of a legal or regulatory investigation.

The 2006 changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure indicate that all organizations (including governments) must be able to find, capture, and produce electronically stored information that might be relevant to a judicial or regulatory request. This can’t be done with server backups, CMS revision control, or other outdated methods. You need a solution that can provide indisputable proof of your online records integrity and authenticity (as required by the Federal Rules of Evidence.)

Want to know how to do it right? Website and social media archiving is a good solution for e-discovery preparedness. PageFreezer’s archiving technology uses web crawlers that capture all web pages (including social media). The pages are stored exactly as they are captured (including links, rich media, video, and Flash), which satisfies regulatory requirements for digital records. PageFreezer also provides a digital timestamp and signature for each archived page, ensuring data integrity and authenticity. With this SaaS solution (no tedious installation or software), governments can sign up and begin archiving in less than an hour.

As we’ve discussed, adopting a web archiving policy is essential. But it’s not just for big cities or the federal government. PageFreezer’s pricing is competitive so that even small towns can stay prepared. For instance, the City of DeLeon, TX recently signed up with PageFreezer as part of a Gov 2.0 Make-Over intending to show how any community can deploy technology in effective but affordable ways. The archiving policy was among the lower-priced innovations DeLeon adopted — and the ROI is invaluable.

The Internet will only continue to grow in scale and complexity, and governments are increasingly interested in how it can be used for civic growth and development.The issue of records retention must be addressed from the start so that agencies can move forward confidently online.

Can your agency afford to start archiving and properly preserving your web records?

Can you afford NOT to?

Are your records being “lost in translation”?

“Governments around the world are taking a leap into the cloud,” noted Government Computer News (GCN) in an article which focused on the Department of Defense, and its unique needs in moving to cloud solutions.  Among them were security concerns, total cost of ownership, and functionality — but the issue of records compliance jumped out as a topic that all agencies should be carefully considering.  These challenges remain as more agencies continue to create digital records.  It’s a topic that simply cannot be ignored.

As noted in the post, it’s not just the DOD that is moving more communications and services online — it’s a fast-growing percentage of cities, counties, and states across the country.  These agencies MUST recognize the potential record value of the content they publish on their web pages and social media.  Several requirements (like those in the Federal Records Act of 1950 and the E-Government Act of 2002) demand the preservation of federal public records.  State and local governments have their own varying retention laws, but one thing is becoming clear — digital records should be preserved just as meticulously as traditional records.

Cases of e-discovery and FOIA requests are the main concerns.  “[There’s a] public expectation that all web content is both permanently valuable and accessible,” noted NARA in a bulletin containing guidance on how to manage online records.  Citizens suppose that you are keeping track of info and conversations that you’ve published online in the past — including social media.  Producing digital records for legal counsel or FOIA can become very expensive if you don’t have a good retention system in place.

As the DOD searches for retention solutions, said GCN’s article, the Department should recognize that not all “cloud offerings” are created equal.  Some archiving and data retention policies do not ensure perfect copies of captured files, often omitting key features like watermarks. While not as critical in some civilian applications, this type of retention just isn’t suitable for government agencies. Records should never be lost in translation, said GCN — “important documents must remain consistent as they move in and out of the cloud.”

“Data integrity” is the phrase used to indicate a perfect, unchanged archive of a web page, file, or document.  Web archiving, which involves the capturing of online content in its original format, is accomplished in the cloud without dependency on specific technologies or databases.  That’s why archiving trumps screen shots, server back-up, “CMS revision control” and other less powerful means of preserving digital content.

But to ensure data integrity, your agency must employ an archiving solution that can provide a “digital timestamp” and “digital signature”.  Those are the key words that tell you the archives will meet legal requirements for public records AND stand as admissible evidence in court.

A good archive should ensure that your web pages (even those with complex content like video or interactive features) can always be viewed in their original form and deliver the same user experience, meeting regulatory requirements for authentic copies. Archiving guarantees your agency’s ability to exactly reproduce past online content, and to locate specific files using search technologies for FOIA requests or e-discovery cases.  In the end, having a solid archiving plan will pay for itself — saving your agency the high costs of being caught unprepared, without defensible records of your online activity.

SEC says companies can use social media — if they tell investors where to look

A landmark ruling by the SEC is changing how publicly traded companies communicate with investors. Following an investigation of a CEO at Netflix who used his Facebook page to report sales figures, regulators decided that social media sites like Facebook are acceptable forums for publishing market-relevant news, as long as investors are advised to follow the social media sites where the news will be posted.

The Securities and Exchange Commission formerly frowned on social media as an avenue for communicating with shareholders, asserting that such channels violated rules about selective disclosure, which were designed to prohibit small groups of people from getting market-moving news directly from companies. Now that social media has become such a publicly-embraced phenomenon, the SEC is revising its view on how “selective” social media really is. Twitter claims 200 million monthly active users and Facebook has 1.06 billion. With figures like these, it’s obvious that social media has potential to reach even more people than company websites and market reports.

As companies move forward with even more usage of social media platforms, a few things should be kept in mind to ensure compliance:

• Don’t neglect to tell investors to follow your social media.

This new freedom of communication comes with a stipulation — companies must alert shareholders to the channels that the company intends to use, regardless of how many followers their social media sites already have. According to the WJS Law Blog, the SEC has advised CEOs that having thousands of followers does not let them off the hook — they still have to broadcast their intentions of posting market-related news on social media.

• Utilize multiple communication channels.

Since the SEC is concerned about fair disclosure, CEOs should take steps to make sure that market information is published through various channels (like blogs and reports) in addition to social media. This would ensure that the greatest number of people would have access to company news, clearly demonstrating the company’s intention to keep everyone informed.

• Ensure your social media content is captured and preserved.

As social media gains footing as a viable means of communication with customers and investors, the burden to preserve records is greater than ever. Depending on the industry, companies may be required to keep business records for up to seven years — and if social media is used to share market-moving news, it is even more likely to be considered a record. CEOs can ensure compliance by employing solutions that effectively capture and store social media in case it is required during investigation or litigation.

To learn more please visit the web and social media archiving for financial compliance page.

Don’t get caught piecing together your online history

The numbers of court cases involving web content — especially social media — have continued to increase. More often than ever, a Twitter stream or Facebook page has become key evidence in court. Companies and individuals are discovering that their online history is of vital importance — and not everyone has been preserving it properly.

Without a defensible archive of your web content, you may be stuck piecing together your online records using unreliable and incomplete sources. Sometimes this type of detective work must be done by investigators, as in the case of the deleted Instagram account of a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing. Authorities are re-constructing the account using the leftover digital imprints that still remain, such as the traces saved by Google’s web cache. But the suspect’s complete account could not be recovered this way, because Google’s cache stores information for variable lengths of time.

Even when the case is not criminal, as the one described, defensible archives of online activity are critical for companies and agencies that might be involved in any type of legal or regulatory action. You certainly can’t rely on the social media sites to retain your information for any guaranteed length of time:

“Given the volume of real-time content on Instagram, some information may only be stored for a short period of time,” Instagram says on its site. “We do not retain data for law enforcement purposes unless we receive a valid preservation request.”

Similar statements on other social media sites make it clear that although the companies will produce any evidence they have upon legal request, there is no guarantee of how much they will be able to produce. The same goes for Google’s cache, server backups, and revision control (in the case of websites). These “copies” of your web content are often incomplete, unreliable, and unacceptable as evidence in court.

The answer to complete digital records lies with web and social media archiving. Providing for all your data to be systematically captured and stored guarantees your preparedness and protection in any case involving web content. A defensible archive also carries a digital timestamp and signature, ensuring its data integrity and authenticity.

There’s no excuse these days for piecing together your online records from questionable sources. The technology exists to create perfect, court-ready digital records of all your web and social media content. Archiving saves time and money when it comes to the ediscovery process — and of course, you can’t put a price on peace of mind.