IM here to stay...

When I speak to clients these days, I often end up discussing instant messaging (IM). You see, it's something of a progression from the old style typewritten letters to emails to IM (and from there to text messages). IM is less formal than email, and many people believe that IMs cannot be captured. That's wrong. The technology does exist... The consumer versions of these programs allow individual users to save transcripts, and enterprise-level IM software allow companies to retain copies of IMs.

Slowly, IMs are getting notice. The June 2005 CORPORATE COUNSEL article on IM notes that from 2003 to 2004, one expert saw a 50 percent increase in cases that involved IM evidence. This is in contrast with the a January 2005 study by the Association for Information and Image Management and Kahn Consulting, only 28 percent of companies have written policies in place for instant messaging that cover things like acceptable use and data retention. (In case, you are wondering, the EU is worried about this too. This is not surprising, I guess, considering the wider use of mobile technology in Europe.)

I copied this chart from CFO Europe:


Company policies and understandings on IM. 

All I can say is, there will come a day when the failure to retain IMs could be spoliation. Don't know when that will be. Might be sooner than you think.