Preservation of Social Media Evidence

In cases headed for trial, preservation of evidence has always been paramount. A documented, comprehensive chain of custody for physical evidence is needed to ensure the evidence will produce valid results if destructive testing is required, and is needed to allow the evidence to be introduced at trial. Providing a valid chain of custody for digital evidence is a new challenge to the insurance industry.

Of particular concern these days is social media data. Adjusters and defense counsel are excited to capture a photo of the claimant doing a downward dog yoga pose, but the immediate next question should be “how is it stored?” “Is the metadata captured?” “How will you retrieve it later in a way that satisfies plaintiff’s counsel”?

Chain of custody plays as important a role in the preservation of social media evidence as it does in the preservation of physical evidence. Ideally, social media should be recovered following the same protocols every time, and it should be stored on a secure, SOCII compliant third party server with recall through an un-editable interface.

When done correctly and consistently, Social media data and surveillance footage storage / retrieval becomes much easier — All surveillance is in one place behind a secure, 2FA login. No more searching through claim files, looking through poorly labeled jump drives in a file drawer, or dealing with cracked physical surveillance DVDs.

The Fraud Sniffr Observr platform provides this software solution with every file we process. Chat us with questions or call for a free consultation: 616-758-1079

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