The Dangers of Metadata / Hidden Data

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Are you unwittingly sending confidential information to your co-workers, clients or vendors? If you email documents the answer is most likely yes.

Every time you create an electronic document metadata is automatically added to it. For example, information may be left over from previous versions or contributions that were hidden with Track Changes. And after working on a document some of this data may contain confidential information.

The security of the information within documents becomes a risk when documents are shared and emailed to other people. The potential to accidentally send files containing sensitive metadata is amplified with every email that is sent back and forth in a collaboration.

Types of Metadata:

Comments

Your name

Your initials

Your email address

Your company or organization's name

The name of your computer

The name of the network server or hard disk on which you saved the document

Other file properties and summary information

Track Changes: Inserted or deleted text you thought was gone

The names of previous document authors

Document revisions

Document versions

Template information

Hidden text

Macros

Hyperlinks

Routing information

Non-visible portions of embedded Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) objects

Left over data in your documents - whether it is automatically generated metadata or hidden data that a user forgot about - can put you at financial risk, a competitive disadvantage, or in an embarrassing situation with costly consequences.

Remove Metadata Risks With Workshare Protect
The Workshare Protect product line removes metadata from your Office documents and keeps any sensitive visible or hidden information from leaking from your organization.

Managing, accessing, and effectively using critical business information is a vital part of everyday business operations and fundamental to business success.

Workshare solutions provide a simple and productive way to ensure document integrity and security. With Workshare you will discover visible and hidden content risks and ensure users are in compliance with all of your content security policies.

Workshare software solutions are being utilized to improve:

Security: Make sure hidden data is removed and content is secure before distributing in order to protect against inadvertent or fraudulent content changes
Accuracy: Synchronize and validate content versions and maintain control over the master version at all times
Compliance: Keep a complete activity log showing what edits where made by whom and when for audit and compliance verification

Why Workshare?
Workshare software helps organizations exchange content and implement internal controls to protect data:

Enforce usage policies that control content
Stop out-bound email that contains financial or other sensitive information
Alert end users to policy violations
Enable companies to define rules for content control and protection
Provide audit reports of content changes
Support compliance activities without changing the way users work

Only Workshare educates and alerts users of policy violations, blocks content where necessary, and empowers users to correct the problem when appropriate.

Learn More