[Panel 4] Addressing Privacy Issues in Social Media Discovery

Social media, text messaging, and other informal means of digital communication are of increasing importance in eDiscovery. The old model of “asymmetrical discovery” has given way to an environment in which an individual party now faces as much eDiscovery exposure, relatively speaking, as a major corporation. For the individual, social media discovery involves large volumes of electronically stored information (ESI) over which the party has little practical understanding or control, highly personal information with little or no relevance to the claims and defenses in the action, and plenty of non-party information woven throughout. Courts have by-and-large concluded that the rules of discovery apply equally to social media as any other ESI, but that the mechanics of preservation, review, and production require special attention by the parties, and occasionally intervention by the Court, to protect legitimate party and non-party privacy interests.