Microsoft Office Documents and metadata: exposed like a thong under white pants
Computers | (1) | By: matt
Several years ago, a huge blunder was made when a document circulated by the Democratic National Committee revealed too much information--beneath the surface. The document contained all sorts of information called metadata that the author had not intended to be carried with the document. Merck was discovered to have deleted data revealing correlation between Vioxx and heart attacks when metadata were examined. The list includes unintentional corporate earnings previews, etc. Microsoft Office products tend to collect this information automatically, by default.
Metadata could be best described as data about data. In the Microsoft Office case, the metadata is data about ...