Archiving obligations & social media: Do you know what you are doing?

Or, rather: Could cause costly problems. Because, just like other text-based content, many social media posts are subject to retention. And that is not all: They are subject to identical regulations in terms of data protection and compliance.

Social media data is on a par with other data

A fact with a certain amount of explosive power – as often no-one feels responsible for the documentation of social media data. Many companies treat social media badly; they do not view it on a level with other company documentation. In reality, it may be difficult to give every posting on your own Facebook page the same relevance as a quote, an order or an invoice – in other words, a legally binding document. But even though it may be difficult: In the case of many posts – if not all – it is the reality!

Study: Companies are misjudging the legal impact

It can be assumed that this awareness has not yet hit home. A study recently showed that: 28 percent of companies do not actively pay attention to their social media content; they haven’t even named someone to manage it. The situation does not improve when it comes to instant messaging services. Almost 40 percent of companies have not put anyone in charge of managing these services. And to cap it off, the study discovered that ten percent of all companies do not even document emails, customer data or website content.

There are no excuses any more

When you take the legal risks of this data policy into account, there is only one conclusion: “You DON’T know what you are doing.” The ECM/DMS industry must take the initiative and address the situation. After all, the solutions, which collate the data from various sources in companies and then independently index, order and archive in line with data protection and legal archiving periods, exist. EASY can offer them to companies of all sizes. As such, there are no more excuses for companies not documenting their social media data.