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Cybersecurity Law & StrategyE-DiscoveryFeatures

Best Practices for Preserving and Collecting Hyperlinked Files In E-Discovery

By John Price
May 01, 2025

As legal and compliance teams adopt cloud-based collaboration tools like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and Slack, they are unlocking unprecedented efficiency and flexibility in managing information. However, this evolution has also introduced a significant new layer of complexity, particularly concerning e-discovery. Hyperlinked files, unlike traditional email attachments, are dynamic versions of themselves, so it is as if they evolve in motion. Often stored externally from the collaboration platform, they represent a fundamental shift in how organizations manage and secure evidence for legal cases.
Failure to address these challenges could lead to severe consequences, including regulatory violations, spoliation claims and incomplete productions. For example, regulations such as the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and SEC Rule 17a-4 set high standards for defensible data management. Unfortunately, hyperlinked files often lack the visibility and control those traditional attachments offer legal teams.
Proactively securing critical hyperlinked data is no longer optional. It is a necessity for avoiding compliance pitfalls and maintaining defensible workflows in an era of cloud-based document collaboration.

The Challenges of Hyperlinked Files In E-Discovery

Dynamic and Version-Sensitive Nature

Hyperlinked files fundamentally differ from attachments because they are not bound to a specific version of a document. Instead, they often point to cloud-hosted files with unrestricted updates. For instance, an executive may hyperlink a PowerPoint presentation stored in Google Drive within an email. Between the hyperlink’s creation and collection during discovery, the file could have changed multiple times, making it exceedingly difficult to pinpoint the exact version shared.
This becomes particularly challenging when hyperlinked files pertain to crucial evidence in a legal dispute. Without proactive tracking systems in place, it is easy to lose the original time-stamped version of a document. As a result, evidence becomes unreliable or even legally inadmissible.

Compliance Risks with Incomplete Preservation

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