According to Pew Research, the vast majority of Americans—96 percent—now own a cellphone of some kind. Unique mobile device data subject to investigations, discovery, or regulatory requests is often stored outside of company-accessible locations. Many mobile device artifacts, such as text messages, contacts, call logs, photos, videos, voicemails, chats, application data, and more, are not stored on company servers. Unless companies have the necessary mobile device discovery processes in place and take rapid collection measures, critical data could be overlooked, or the company could face spoliation or adverse inference claims when data is mistakenly deleted by a custodian or automatically deleted by the mobile device operating system.
KPMG developed the 10-step mobile discovery readiness checklist to help companies evaluate their mobile device discovery readiness and refine procedures, workflows, and employee guidance to address mobile discovery risks and gaps.
This checklist covers:
- Steps to assemble a cross-functional team
- Key items to review to ensure mobile devices are properly addressed
- Considerations for creating a workflow
- Action items for legal departments
- How KPMG can help
