Ephemeral chat can make legal holds challenging by automatically deleting relevant data. This is because eDiscovery necessitates having all available information for presentation during litigation or court cases.
ComplexDiscovery reports that the eDiscovery market will be worth $25.11 billion by 2029. This is almost $9 billion more than the industry currently sits at. Because of this growth, it's critical for legal teams to find technologies needed for restoring ephemeral chats and other important information.
Here, we'll discuss how ephemeral messaging apps affect legal holds and evidence retention. Read on to learn some strategies to preserve critical data.
What Does It Mean to Be On Legal Hold?
A legal hold is a mandate to preserve any data files that may be relevant to ongoing legal proceedings. These proceedings may include court cases and litigations as well as investigations and audits.
Legal holds kick off eDiscovery processes by telling custodians not to delete or alter this data. This stops the spoliation of evidence since people will be clear about their duties regarding preserving and storing information.
The Basics of Ephemeral Chat
It's easy for a legal hold platform to keep tabs on most data. This is because the majority of file types are permanent. They stay where you put them until someone chooses to delete them.
However, ephemeral chats automatically disappear after a pre-determined period. The goal is privacy achieved through making the information sent between users short-lived.
Many ephemeral chats also disappear when the user logs out of the app or starts a new session. Regardless of the situation, the message or file gets deleted from both the sender's device and the recipients'.
Many people associate ephemeral chat with Snapchat or Instagram Stories. However, legal teams and professional organizations may also use ephemeral chat features in applications like:
- Slack
- Signal
- Teams
This poses several problems with data preservation since custodians don't have a choice regarding its automatic deletion.
How Long Do Legal Holds Last?
There isn't a single average length for a legal hold. eDiscovery investigations can last for two weeks or two years. It depends on the complexity of the case and what legal channels those involved explore.
However, since the average ephemeral messaging impact only lasts a day or two, it's unlikely to remain available throughout the entire eDiscovery process.
Ephemeral Chat: Issues for Slack eDiscovery and Teams eDiscovery
Unfortunately, ephemeral chat features are available in some of the most important workplace communication apps. Slack exports and Teams messages are among them.
FirstLegal reports that the ability to recover ephemeral messages exists on a case-by-case basis. Even if the messages contain data vital to building a case, it may not be recoverable.
Reducing the Impacts of Ephemeral Chat on Legal Holds
Resolving data preservation challenges with ephemeral messaging can be challenging. However, they're essential legal compliance strategies that can eliminate the potential of future legal challenges.
Whether you're a corporate legal professional or someone practicing at a law firm, it's critical to develop a clear policy for ephemeral chat use. These plans should include information like:
- What ephemeral chat apps to use in the workplace
- Who should use these applications
- Situations in which the apps should/should not be used
- Guidelines for managing short-lived chats
This keeps everyone on the same page and ensures the preservation of important information that must be saved. Organizations also need to monitor their employees' use of these messaging applications to ensure that they comply with the policies outlined by the company.
Training employees on how to preserve data from these applications is also important. This may mean:
- Installing automatic archival tools
- Instructing employees on how to save messages
- Backing ephemeral messages up to a secure cloud
How Can Logikcull Help?
Taking preventative measures to preserve data from ephemeral messaging apps is important. However, it's often inevitable that some information from these applications will be lost. Using a top-rated eDiscovery platform is the best chance you have of securing data retroactively.
Logikcull pulls data from all your applications into a single dashboard. This all-in-one interface makes it easy to search for specific information. Automated tagging based on keywords, source application, and more helps legal teams stay organized during eDiscovery and assists with review times.
Metadata Preservation: Beyond the Surface
When it comes to ephemeral chats, Logikcull can help preserve data by holding onto behind-the-scenes information. The application doesn't just save files and chat messages. It also secures metadata like:
- Author
- Sender
- Recipient
- Attachments
- Chat logs
- Edit history
- Media type
- Format of messages
- Read receipts
- User reactions
- Data creation and modification dates
- Users who received the chat via forwarding, CC, and BCC
This may mean better backups and accessible data even after deletion. Anonymous messaging and deleted messages are frequently available through this metadata, so as long as your legal team has the appropriate tools, you can minimize the chances of automatic spoliation.
Compliance Support for eDiscovery Teams
Logikcull is especially made to handle complex eDiscovery needs. Vanishing messages are one common issue that those facing eDiscovery challenges will contend with.
Because of this, the platform provides compliance support for its users. Logikcull professionals will help organizations understand and meet compliance requirements. These include compliance needs for those who use ephemeral communication applications.
Ultimately, this assistance can help to prevent your enterprise from facing noncompliance-related fines and fees. You can rest assured that you're taking every available avenue to preserve the data that will let you craft a compelling case while working within legal parameters outlined in FOIA requests and subpoena orders.
Streamline Legal Holds and eDiscovery Investigations
Now that you know how Logikcull can streamline legal holds by recovering and preserving ephemeral chats, it's time to test-drive our platform and learn what we have to offer.
We prioritize affordable pricing for custom plans made to meet our clients' specific needs. Plus, our user-friendly platform has obtained several awards and accolades in 2025 while racking up hundreds of five-star reviews.
To see why 1500+ people trust us with their data storage and eDiscovery processes, request a demo of our services ASAP!
