Electronic discovery or e-discovery refers to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case. Emails, IM, MS Office, and any other electronically stored information which could be relevant evidence in a law suit is an example of e-discovery.  The nature of digital data makes it extremely well-suited to investigation. For one thing, digital data can be electronically searched with ease, whereas paper documents must be scrutinized manually.

Electronic discovery and litigation concerns are serious responsibilities for IT staff members. In the process of electronic discovery, data of all types can serve as evidence. This can include text, images, calendar files, databases, spreadsheets, audio files, animation, Web sites and computer programs. E-discovery is an evolving field that goes far beyond mere technology. It gives rise to multiple legal, constitutional, political, security and personal privacy issues, many of which have yet to be resolved.

Companies are worrying right now because they need to be ready to produce metadata or called a data about other data of any sort in any media. Companies that will fail to produce the e-discovery documents in legal cases will have fines.