Didn’t get to this yesterday, but EDRM announced the release of its EDRM Short Message Metadata Primer for public comment.

Short message communications such as Text Messaging and Instant Messaging have become the most commonly used communication method with 89% of service providers and 91% of corporations reporting mobile devices as their top source for collection. The collection, review, and production of short messages pose unique eDiscovery challenges, and the breadth of data and how metadata differs from one application to another has proven to be quite complex. So, this primer will be very useful to bridge the gap!

The publication (announced here) reflects inaugural efforts by the EDRM Short Message Metadata Primer Project Team led by Monica Harris of Cellebrite Enterprise Solutions and Matthew Rasmussen of ModeOne. The Project Team, comprised of eDiscovery professionals from various backgrounds, worked to identify and define the various short message metadata fields extracted from leading text and instant messaging platforms (e.g., WhatsApp, Slack, Teams). The Primer aspires to serve as a reference model to promote clarity and uniformity as it relates to the requests for text and instant messages and productions of these data types.

As noted in the landing page for the primer, the EDRM Short Message Metadata Primer is a work-in-progress, a snapshot of the rapidly changing text and instant messaging environments. The Project Team anticipates the need to update the publication periodically to account for the fluidity of the text and instant messaging market, and in response to industry feedback. You can download the primer from the landing page.

The primer summarizes characteristics for more than 40 metadata fields across iOS and Android text messaging, as well as Teams, Slack and WhatsApp. Pages 3 and 4 of the five-page document are the core of the primer, where the short message fields and applications are identified.

The public comment period is quite brief – only through August 1, 2023! 😮 Please send your comments and suggestions to info@edrm.net. Hurry!

So, what do you think? Are you excited about the new EDRM Short Message Metadata Primer? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.