Extract from Brent Westenfelt’s article “Mastering Ephemeral Data for Ediscovery”
Disappearing messages were once a staple of spy movies – and now are a daily part of the way in which people communicate, generating ephemeral data that savvy ediscovery professionals are beginning to mine for electronically stored information (ESI).
People from all walks of life — including engineering departments for billion-dollar Fortune 500 companies (like the Wickr controversy at Uber in 2017) and protesters (like the widespread use of Signal in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S.) — are relying on self-destructing messaging applications, also known as ephemeral messaging, to communicate without leaving a digital trail.
Larger technology players like Facebook, Google, and WhatsApp have also incorporated ephemeral settings, and, increasingly, other messaging services have options for “vanishing” mode.
What it is: Messaging platforms that don’t leave a digital trace (e.g., Signal, Snapchat, Confide, Dust, and an increasing number of other tools that have messaging functions with “vanish” mode available)
