Social Media2012-2014

Four-in-ten internet users are victims of online harassment

300% growth in cases thatinclude online evidence in 2014

40% of internet users haveexperienced online harassment

60% of divorce cases includeSocial Media data

Criminal Law & Internet (2014)

Child Exploitation 28%

ID of Witnesses 13%

Online Harassment 11%Gang related 11%

Fraud 9%

Sexual Assault 9%

Violation of Proba-tion 6%

Drugs 6%

Possession of Firearms 4%

Murder 2% Terrorism 2%

Civil Law & Internet (2014)

Employment 32%

Insurance 13%

Tort 13%

Intellectual Property 11%

Contract 8%

Defamation 5%

Bankruptcy 5%

Privacy 5%

Trade secrets 3%

Divorce 3% Discrimination 3%

The problem with digital evidence

Data Integrity– How do you prove that a webpage

has not been tampered with?

Data Authenticity– How do you prove the date & time

a page was captured?

– How do you prove from which URL a snapshot was taken?

Data format– Which data formats should be

used?

Examples of guidelines

International Criminal Court: – e-Court Protocol: web data must

include metadata

United States– Rule 34(b)(1)(c) FRCP: web data

is to be produced in native format, with metadata attached

– Rule 901(a) FRCP: data integrity & authentic can be proven with digital signatures & timestamps

Important Lawsuits

● Re Vee Vinhnee (2005) This case identified inadmissibility of mere printouts of digital content as authentic evidence, and so the question had to be asked: how can you legally verify a document from the internet or digital origin?

● Lorraine v Markel Insurance Company (2007) This landmark judgement originally discussed, and verified, the legal necessity of authentication of digital content when produced in court as digital evidence, in accordance with Federal Rule of Evidence 901(a).

● United States v. Vayner (2014) In one of the most recent and relevant cases to the current stance of social media evidence, the courts found that printouts of a social media account were wrongly admitted as evidence without proper verification and authentication.

Take snapshots right within your web browser

Browse. Click.Evidence.

Each snapshots contains a digital signature & timestamp

Create Authenticated Evidence

WebPreserver can capture anything on the web: social media, websites, blogs

and more

Websites, Blogs & Social Media

Collaborate on WebPreserver.com. Tag, organize, share, comment and full-text

search all your snapshots

Online Collaboration

PDF Screenshot (JPG) Metadata HTML

Export to other platforms

WARC EDRM-XML LexisNexis Concordance

Easily export data to: