BarbriSFCourseDetails

Course Details

This CLE will discuss best strategies for managing the risks associated with employees’ use of personal devices for business purposes, including governance and control considerations, litigation strategies, and identifying, collecting, and producing ESI on employee-owned devices while protecting and respecting employee privacy. The panel will review a company's duties under the Federal Rules, factors that influence whether information on an employee-owned device is discoverable and subject to a legal hold, the role of company bring your own device (BYOD) policies, recent guidance from government and regulatory bodies, recommended company policies, relevant case law, and solutions to recurring challenges.

Faculty

Description

In today’s mobile world, it is possible that workers may use their personal devices, such as phones and computers, for work, making them a potential source of discoverable ESI in litigation or investigations involving their employers. Yet, these devices are also full of sensitive, personal, and legally irrelevant information. Employers must be cognizant of this possibility and evaluate both proactive and reactive steps for managing the risks associated with workers using personal devices for business purposes.

An employer’s obligation to locate and turn over data in response to discovery or investigative requests may not be excused simply because the data is found on non-company devices. The law in this area is developing.

In determining a company’s obligations relating to relevant data on an employee’s personal device, courts consider many factors, including (1) whether the employer has possession, custody, or control of the personal mobile device; (2) the company’s policies and controls relating to the use of personal devices; (3) the willingness of the employees to cooperate; (4) the frequency of such use and the knowledge of the employer; and (5) an employee’s expectation of privacy in the ESI on his/her device. Employers face significant risks when accessing or processing data on an employee’s personal device, particularly in light of data privacy concerns and even more so in relation to government investigations. The burdens and challenges of collecting, reviewing, and producing ESI from a plethora of devices, of course, are obvious.

Listen as this esteemed panel discusses privacy and discovery issues arising from employee-owned devices and BYOD policies.

Outline

  1. BYOD discovery risks and challenges
  2. Standards for requiring/allowing search of personal devices in litigation
  3. Limits on a company's right to search personal devices
  4. Corporate policies for use of mobile devices
  5. Strategies for anticipating and responding to discovery requests
    1. Establishing a working process for tracking, preserving, and collecting documents
    2. Managing information and documents across multiple devices and platforms
    3. Documenting and managing e-discovery processes through workforce changes
  6. Recent decisions

Benefits

The panel will discuss these and other key issues:

  • To what extent can an employer monitor and obtain access to an employee's personal device?
  • What should a corporate policy relating to the use of personal devices for business purposes look like?
  • How does the company create and enforce a legal hold on personal devices?
  • What is the effect of an employee's good faith effort to address technical problems on a BYOD device that may result in a hard reset or device wipe?
  • How do the European data protection laws impact an order from a U.S. court that employees of foreign companies turn over their personal device in a legal matter?