Vince Walden welcomes Wendy Riggs and Kara Ricupero to the Walden Pond show. Wendy heads Information Governance and Legal Operations at Airbnb, and Kara is the Senior Global Director of Information Governance at Ebay. This week’s discussion revolves around the new communication and collaboration tools such as Slack, which are now widely adopted by organizations, and the unique issues and challenges they pose for information governance and compliance.

The issue of data retention and review is one that is particularly problematic. With communication tools like Slack being used to share vast amounts of information, reviewing and holding on to potentially relevant data proves challenging. Kara says that it’s an all or nothing conundrum unless you bring in a separate legal hold tool. You can’t use the company’s automated deletion policy because you don’t know which channel may be relevant to litigation or an investigation. Wendy adds that putting governance around a tool like Slack is difficult from an architectural perspective.

Finding an effective solution to these governance issues is a matter of understanding your business. Work with your people to find the best defensible position for your company that also makes you compliant, Kara advises.

Resources

Wendy Riggs on LinkedIn

Kara Ricupero on LinkedIn