WindTalker, Inc. will shortly officially launch its new content security platform, which offers law firms control of sensitive information throughout its lifecycle by providing granular protection of the content versus the file.
With a background in working with the US Department of Defense, Windtalker is built directly into Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat, enabling users to classify, encrypt and redact content line by line and paragraph by paragraph, using rights-based access permissions, eliminating the need to create separate file versions and enabling them to share documents freely.
Users can set access permissions for different roles and people within the document itself.
The encrypted information remains protected, even when copy and pasted, and throughout its entire lifecycle, meaning that lawyers and firms retain full control over information access, even when sending documents to cloud-based applications, flash drives, courts or opposing counsel.
Speaking to Legal IT Insider, president Christopher Combs said: “Windtalker can be used to protect communication from one lawyer to another or protect attorney client privilege. It can be used to protect medical information or any sensitive cases where you need to redact the victims’ names.”
Windtalker’s ‘Scout’ technology can identify predetermined data and apply appropriate security classification and protection. However, at ILTA Windtalker began conversations with providers of intelligent search to make it easier to identify and protect sensitive information.
The startup quite rightly envisages that its technology could be useful in the context of eDiscovery, where it could be used to quickly redact sensitive information prior to disclosure and a court hearing.
What is particularly clever about the technology is that in a court hearing, where redacted information is in dispute, a party is able to instantly reveal the text to a judge in order for a decision to be made on whether it should be disclosed.
Windtalker, which is headquartered in Georgia, has been working with a number of law firms on different use cases and is currently in pilot with a global top 10 law firm. It was due to officially launch tomorrow (October 17) but we’ve been informed that has been pushed back to the New Year.
Update:
WindTalker launched on 30 October.
Christopher Combs, President and CEO of WindTalker, Inc., told Legal IT Insider: “We are pleased to announce the launch of the WindTalker content security platform on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018. WindTalker’s deep integrations with Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat are ready-to-go and the software is already performing strongly in production at customer sites. For these reasons, we saw no need to wait any further to officially release WindTalker. Our development team is finalizing integrations with Active Directory and Excel which will be part of the WindTalker platform this quarter.”