Turn on the Power with Agile ECM

Ouch! Sticks and stones can break your bones but redacted words will never hurt you! Maybe not…This past Thursday, the former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich’s attorneys issued a subpoena to President Obama requiring him to testify in the former Governor’s “Senate Seat for Sale” trial. The court motion was filed with certain texts redacted, or “blacked out”, but because of the manner in which the redaction was done, the “veil” was easily lifted leaving the motion’s complete text open and exposed for the world to read and dissect.

Although the privacy breach was discovered shortly after the motion was posted on the court’s website, the full subpoena text is now in the public domain – forever. Not only has this gaffe been a bonanza for news outlets and Tweeters, but it has also potentially created liability issues for the staff and organization that released such an unsecure document. Is ignorance a valid excuse? Just how does an organization ensure that its employees are in compliance with privacy laws?

The answer is to utilize an enterprise content management system like Laserfiche with extensive, built-in security controls which prevent this type of information voyeurism. Laserfiche allows authorized users to redact, either in black or white, portions of documents that are secure, or at a minimum not for public consumption. Not only is document-level access controlled by user roles and permissions, but the ability to redact, or to see through redactions, can even be limited to the select few with “need to see or know” clearance. In Laserfiche, documents can be exported to .pdf format for general distribution, but unlike the published Blagojevich motion, the redacted text does not even exist in the exported document – so with no text, no one has the ability to break the code and “see behind the curtain.” Today, with FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests surging and the more open and “sharing” Web 2.0 culture, privacy is becoming much harder and much more costly to maintain – but the penalties of not doing so are real. Contact UBS today to discuss how a Laserfiche enterprise content management system can give you the centralized control over document security you need, while allowing local flexibility for more efficient and lower-cost business operations.

Posted by Paul Neal.