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Are you unwittingly sending confidentialinformation to clients or opposingcounsel? If you have e-mailed aMicrosoft Word or Corel WordPerfectdocument to either, the answer to thisquestion is likely yes.

When you create and edit your Word orWordPerfect documents, informationabout you and the edits you make is

automatically created and hidden withinthe document file. This information iscalled metadata.

Litigators need be aware of metadata foran additional reason: It can provideextensive information for building anelectronic paper trail as to who created,read, or even deleted text from a particulardocument, whose computer it was storedon, and more.

What is metadata?Metadata can be simply described asdata about data. Think of it as a hiddenlevel of extra information that is auto-matically created and embedded in acomputer file.

On its Web site, Microsoft indicates thatthe following metadata may be stored indocuments created in all versions ofWord, Excel and PowerPoint:

your name and initials (or those of theperson that created the file);

your firm or organization name; the name of your computer;

the name of the local hard drive ornetwork server where you savedthe document;

the name and type of the printer youprinted the document on;

other file properties and summaryinformation (see below);

non-visible portions of embeddedOLE objects;

the names of previous documentauthors;

document revisions, including deletedtext that is no longer visible onthe screen;

document versions;

information about any template usedto create the file;

hidden text; and

comments.

Similar metadata exists withinWordPerfect files, and metadata datasecurity issues affect most softwareprograms.

While some metadata can easily beviewed within the program that hascreated a file, in most circumstanceshidden metadata can usually only beseen by using a binary file editor.However, sometimes hidden metadata

can become visible accidentally forexample, when WordPerfect opens andimproperly converts a Word file, or whena corrupted file is opened. In theseinstances, both of which are quite possiblein a law office, both the normally visibletext and hidden metadata can appear ona computer screen.

Metadata is very useful in some circum-stances. Document management andprecedent systems make extensive useof metadata. Information such as: whocreated or edited a document; thedocuments usage and distribution history;and relevant keywords, subject or matterinformation, is essential for helpingother users find a relevant documentwithin a precedent databank or otherdocument repository.

The problem with metadata, especially forlawyers, comes when people electroni-cally share files as an attachment viae-mail, on a floppy disk or CD-ROM, over anetwork, or through an extranet. Electronic

document files include both the informa-tion you see on the screen, and all themetadata you dont see. This metadatacan often be confidential information, andcan be potentially damaging or embar-rassing if seen by the wrong eyes.

Metadata in Word

How can you view metadata in one of yourWord documents? (WordPerfect usersshould jump ahead three paragraphs)Find and open a letter or agreement yourecently emailed to a client or opposingcounsel. Click on File, then Properties.This opens the Properties dialog box. Itcontains a variety of summary type infor-mation about the file.

On the General tab you can see what harddrive the document was stored on, and thetime and date it was created, last modifiedand viewed. On the Summary tab you cansee the name of the author, your firm name,as well as the name of the template thatwas used to create the document.

The Statistics tab contains informationabout the size and structure of the docu-ment, including the Total Editing Time inminutes. This statistic is really the totalamount of time the file was open on acomputer, regardless of whether someonewas editing it or not. What if a client sawthis information, and the time indicatedwas significantly less than the amount

of time you docketed for working on thisdocument? This discrepancy could becompletely justifiable, but you could findyourself explaining it to an upset client.

Metadata in WordperfectIn WordPerfect you can see the basic filesummary type of metadata you see inMicrosoft Office documents by selectingFile, then Properties.

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Beware the Dangersof Metadata

2004 Lawyers Professional Indemnity Company. This article originally appeared in LAWPROMagazine The Many Faces of Fraud, June 2004. It is available at www.lawpro.ca/magazinearchives

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WordPerfect also has a feature calledUndo/Redo History. It can allow you toview hundreds of past changes in termsof what text was cut, copied and evendeleted from the document. Open aWordPerfect document. Click on Edit, then

Undo/Redo. This opens the Undo/RedoHistory which lists past changes to thatdocument, assuming Undo/Redo isturned on. Click on the Options button,and then uncheck Save Undo/Redo itemswith document to turn it off. Look atsome of your WordPerfect files to see ifyou can view summary metadata or theUndo/Redo History.

In many instances lawyers will reuse andadapt a document they created for aprevious client. This makes perfect sensefrom an efficiency point of view. However,note that deleted text can remain withina document. This is especially a dangerif you use features that track documentchanges, allow for commenting, or keepversions of documents. What wouldhappen if your client sees confidentialinformation about the client the documentwas originally created for, or if opposingcounsel saw changes that were made inan agreement at the drafting or clientreview stage?

How do you remove metadata?Being aware of metadata is just the start.Obviously you must take steps to reduceor eliminate the metadata in yourdocuments. Sending a fax or paper copyby regular mail would solve the problem,but will likely not be an option in manycircumstances. If you want your client toreview and edit a document, sending itelectronically is the only practical option.Indeed, in many cases, clients, opposingcounsel and even the courts expect to

receive documents electronically. You have a number of options to reduce oreliminate metadata from your documents.

Word, PowerPoint and Excel users shouldturn off the Fast Saves feature. To do thisclick on Tools, then Options, then theSave tab, and uncheck Allow fast saves.In older versions of Microsoft Officeproducts it will be turned on by default.This feature lets a computer more quicklysave a file by not removing deleted textfrom it. When computers were much

slower it was perhaps a helpful feature.With the more powerful computers wenow have, you wont notice any differencewith this feature turned off.

If you used features such as trackedchanges, document versions or comments,make sure you delete the informationthat is being kept within the documentwith these features.

Office XP includes some new features tohelp reduce the accidental disclosure ofmetadata. Even more features are includedin Word 2003 and the other Office 2003applications. They now include a Securitytab in the Options dialog box (selectTools, then Options to view this tab). Youcan specify that some metadata not besaved in a document in this dialog box.

The Information Rights Managementfeature in Office 2003 can also be used toreduce paper trail types of metadatabeing stored within documents.

Converting files to PDF format withAdobe Acrobat or other PDF creators willstrip out most metadata. For this reasonmany have adopted a practice of sendingonly PDF documents to clients oropposing counsel, especially if the recip-ient doesnt need to edit the document.Sending documents in a format thatprevents a document from being changedcan actually be helpful or even necessaryin some cases. Ideally you should cleanout metadata such as tracked changes,versions and comments as it can end upbeing included in the PDF file afterconversion.

While converting a file to PDF formatwill help strip out metadata from theoriginal document, remember that PDFfiles can also contain their own metadata.This is usually basic information such asthe name of the person who created thefile, date of creation, file location etc.Select File, then Document Properties toview the summary metadata informationwithin a PDF file. In this same dialog boxyou can add further restrictions on howthe document can be accessed, used,copied and printed in the SecurityOptions settings.

If you want the recipient to edit thedocument, you need to send it in itsnative format, but without metadata.There are several programs that can help

you identify and clean metadata fromyour documents.

In February this year Microsoft releasedthe Remove Hidden Data Add-In. It willpermanently remove hidden and collab-oration data, such as change trackingand comments, from Word, Excel, andPowerPoint files in Office XP and Office2003 only.

For Word, Excel and PowerPointdocuments, the most widely used meta-data scrubber is the Metadata Assistant,sold by Payne Consulting Group(www.payneconsulting.com ) for US$79.A free demo version of the program willshow you the metadata within a Worddocument, but wont clean it out.

Other metadata removal programs forthe Microsoft suite of products includeOut-of-Sight by SoftWise Consulting(www.softwise.net), ezClean from KKLSoftware ( www.kkl.com ) and WorkshareProtect by Workshare ( www.workshare.net ). For Word only there is Doc Scrubber(www.docscrubber.com ).

Unfortunately there is no softwareprogram for easily and automaticallyremoving metadata from WordPerfectdocuments.

For more information on metadata, seethe following resources:

Word, Excel and PowerPoint usersshould visit the Microsoft support pageat http://support.microsoft.com/ . Formore detailed information on removingmetadata from Word 97, 2000 or 2002,see respectively, Knowledge Basearticles 223790, 237361 or 290945.

WordPerfect users should visit theCorel knowledge base athttp://support.corel.com/ and search

for minimizing metadata.Take some time to understand moreabout metadata, and how you can takesteps to eliminate it from your documents.This will help you prevent an unwantedor embarrassing disclosure of confidentialinformation.

Dan Pinnington is Director of practicePRO.You can reach Dan at dan.pinnington@lawpro.ca .

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37 2004 Lawyers Professional Indemnity Company. This article originally appeared in LAWPRO

Magazine The Many Faces of Fraud, June 2004. It is available at www.lawpro.ca/magazinearchives