Extract from Hanzo’s article, “Dynamic Website Archiving: Why Having a Replayable Viewer Is Critical for Compliance.”
In an SEC or FINRA examination, an examiner can ask a firm to reproduce a specific webpage as it appeared on a specific date. A screenshot saved from that page shows what was on screen at the moment someone captured it. It does not show whether a script rendered different content for a different visitor or different location, or if there’s a filter applied, a disclaimer icon or whether the file itself has been altered since it was saved. Dynamic website archiving addresses that gap by capturing a page’s underlying source, replaying it as it behaved on the day it was captured, and attaching a verifiable timestamp to the record.
In addition, if a calculator was used to show ROI results or projected 401k examples based on specific input, a screenshot does not allow you to revisit the same experience. However, a replayable viewer allows an auditor to revisit the same experience as that visitor did at that point in time and recalculate the same results based on the calculator’s key inputs.
