The importance of digital evidence preservation for online brand protection

 

Online content changes fast. Depending on its type and actual content, it can disappear as fast as a few seconds, like reels on constantly updated social media feeds, never to be found again.

 

In most cases, this is just a minor inconvenience. After all, life will go on, even if you won’t ever come across the funny video of a cat being scared by a cucumber again. But what if the content you saw was actually important, because you need it for your work assignment? Or what if you need to show it in a professional environment, not to amuse your friends but to prove your case in a court of law?

 

Online brand protection experts at globaleyez are overly familiar with this scenario. IP infringing content, including product listings, ads, or social media posts, constantly appears, disappears, and reappears online as fraudsters try to reach customers while staying ahead of online monitoring that detects and eliminates their content.

 

This is why preserving any digital content as it was displayed is crucial. But taking a simple screenshot is usually insufficient, especially in cases of IP infringement.

 

 

What is digital evidence preservation?

As the name suggests, digital evidence preservation is the collection of processes designed to collect, handle, store, and present digital data during forensic investigations.

 

Much like its real-life counterpart, digital evidence can prove or disprove a claim and act as a clue to lead investigators toward uncovering the truth. As such, digital evidence usually answers any or all of these questions: what was seen, where was it seen, and where did it come from?

 

But to remain credible, various protocols are in place to ensure the integrity and trustworthiness of digital evidence, as without these qualities it won’t be usable in court. In Germany, for example, digital evidence must adhere to the DIN A4 PDF format.

 

 

Digital evidence preservation in practice

Taking screenshots is the best way to preserve digital evidence. However, there are significant differences between individual screenshots. Screenshots that include not only the actual screen content but also a timestamp, date, URL, and all contextual data are particularly well-suited for comprehensive evidence documentation.

 

Especially because image editing and data manipulation are becoming increasingly easy, preserving evidence using timestamps from independent sources and incorporating anti-tampering measures such as watermarks offers a clear advantage in online brand protection and general digital evidence collection.

 

Screenshot of the homepage of amazon.de taken with globaleyez’s free screenshotting Google Chrome extension screenseal

 

Here you can try screenseal yourself for free

 

Screenshot of amazon.de’s homepage taken with a different tool

 

Compare the two screenshots above of Amazon’s homepage in Germany. The top one was captured using our free Google Chrome extension screenseal, while the bottom one was captured using a different, randomly selected tool. Both images show what was displayed on Amazon’s homepage at a specific point in time, but thanks to the timestamp field in the top screenshot, you can view the actual URL of the page, the time the screenshot was taken, and the page title—and you can also access the website directly via a QR code, provided it’s still online.

 

Both tools are excellent for taking screenshots, but they serve different purposes. The tool used for the bottom picture allows you to capture the actual image and provides a clear, unobstructed view of the content. This is very useful if you want to show the image to your friends or edit it for any reason. However, if you need the screenshot for another purpose, e.g., to prove your case in a legal dispute, you’ll need the timestamp and all the other information. (It’s important to note that the timestamp in screenseal can be placed above or below the screenshot itself, which means it doesn’t have to take away any visibility from the actual image.)

 

The use cases for a timestamp on a screenshot are very versatile, especially for online brand protection measures. Also, students and researchers can use the timestamp for academic purposes, and even marketers can reach for it if they want to preserve all the information of an archived website or monitor affiliate campaigns.

 

Customer service teams can also rely on timestamped screenshots to improve their troubleshooting efforts and facilitate better communication between teams, while journalists can verify and better refer to their online sources thanks to the information provided by the timestamp, to name just a few examples of use cases for screenshots with timestamps.

 

Timing is important: the sooner you capture a website, the higher the chances that the content is accurately preserved in a court-admissible manner.

 

 

Evidence preservation and brand protection

Evidence preservation is a core part of online brand protection. Detecting and eliminating infringements online is crucial for protecting our clients’ IP assets and brand reputation, but it doesn’t stop there.

 

To support enforcement efforts and an eventual lawsuit for our clients, we need to document all infringements and our subsequent actions precisely and in a court-admissible manner. This is why timestamped screenshots are a must and taking them is a routine part of our work.

 

The brand protection use cases for screenshots with timestamps are endless. For example, when monitoring for counterfeit offers, we need timestamped screenshots as verifiable records, which serve as a basis for takedown requests. We use them for compliance and regulatory documentation as well, when archiving financial disclosures and product claims. When investigating and combating grey market structures, it is essential to gather comprehensive evidence that includes specific dates and sources.

 

More on this topic:

Grey markets on online marketplaces

 

Grey markets across industries

 

Online vs offline grey markets

 

The fast bulk capturing option of screenseal makes it a perfect tool for the efficient collection of a large amount of evidence, which is more than necessary in various types of investigations, including OSINT research and intelligence gathering.

 

Monitoring and organizing e-Commerce listings becomes much easier when each image includes a timestamp with all the necessary data for the product listing’s online appearance. And let’s not forget about using them in a court of law, when you need to preserve digital evidence of the infringement before the content disappears.

 

As you can see, even if filing a lawsuit against fraudsters is not on your agenda, your business can definitely benefit from taking timestamped screenshots. These help document all cases of infringement accurately and give you a clear picture of the history and development of all threats against your brand’s IP rights.

 

 

How to best preserve digital evidence

Here at globaleyez, we have decades of experience in identifying and resolving legal violations. We know firsthand what kind of digital evidence is needed and what steps must be taken to secure it with maximum efficiency.

 

That’s why we developed Screenseal, our user-friendly, in-house tool for creating timestamped screenshots. screenseal is a handy, free Google Chrome extension that’s easy to download and even easier to use.

 

It goes without saying that screenseal users can easily capture court-admissible screengrabs with handy timestamps containing all relevant information. Still, our Google Chrome extension can provide you with so much more.

 

For example, users can take screenshots of multiple open browser tabs simultaneously (bulk screenshots) or capture an entire website in a single image. Alternatively, they can select a specific area of the website they want to screenshot. Users can choose the format in which they want to download the images and save their settings for all subsequent screenshots.

 

 

Conclusion

Preserving digital evidence is as important as preserving its physical counterpart in any investigation. Make sure you use the right tool to ensure that your screenshots contain all the necessary data for your specific purposes.

 

Contact us if you’re interested in using screenseal or have any questions about protecting your brand’s IP rights online.