It is trite but true: Information is one of a business’s most valuable assets. Yet just like oil, if not handled properly, it can cause serious damage. That’s why a business’s information governance (IG) team needs to be carefully considered and planned—its members have the important responsibility of understanding the “who, what, where, when and why ” of its data handling activities, helping to mitigate the privacy and security risks associated with those activities, and…

The Irish Companies Act 2014 (the “Act”) is noteworthy from an information governance (IG) perspective because it imposes a new duty on Irish corporate boards to ensure that individuals appointed company secretary have the necessary skills to maintain records as mandated by the Act. Whether this foreshadows a global regulatory trend towards requiring designated corporate officers to be familiar with IG – or document management – principles, remains to be seen.Most of the 1,448 sections…

The popular North American television show, “Hoarders,” features people who store and keep every item that ever comes into their possession – including items that most people would simply toss. Most people featured on the show see no problem with keeping mountains of items, “just in case.” Each episode usually ends with professional sorting, organizing, removing, and managing the mountains of items.The main draw of this show is the tug-of-war dynamic that occurs between the…

When companies that meet certain thresholds merge in Canada, the parties are required to get permission from the Competition Bureau to go through with the merger plan. Often, these requests for permission are met with supplementary information requests (‘SIRs’) from the Bureau. SIRs are requests for data, e-mails and other information that will allow the Bureau to evaluate the effect and veracity of the merger firsthand. The requests, as articulated in SIRs, are generally intentionally…