Website Archiving for Legal and Compliance Teams

Websites are no longer merely tools to boost marketing. At the core, they are the records of all actions taken by organizations. Inability to access a page's history can cause a serious hitch in the compliance check process in an industry like law, where it matters greatly.

"Websites change on a dime, and the risk profiles evolve. When you are not archiving them effectively, you are creating large regulatory gaps," says Sarai Schubert of Hanzo.

If you are wondering about how to archive websites legally and efficiently, this guide might help you find an answer.

Why Archive?

Archiving a website means grabbing and storing everything on a page exactly as it looked at a particular moment. In other words, it involves much more than simple screenshots or back-ups. 

The archive should contain all information presented on the web page: text, images, videos, charts, files for download, hyperlinks—literally everything to make further use of the saved elements possible.

Why do you need it? Because it ensures that all important information stays safe and does not vanish due to various changes made over time. Moreover, this measure provides the necessary documents for the compliance team.

Compliance and Legal Defensibility

Compliance is not simply a procedure to check off; it is essentially a must-have. All companies operating in highly regulated sectors, such as financial services, where you have to deal with agencies like the SEC, FINRA, and FTC, should be prepared to provide detailed information about any modifications to their websites upon request. 

Otherwise, they risk ending up in serious trouble, both during audits and in court. Legal software effectively facilitates the aforementioned procedure by enabling automatic archiving of all pages. Thus, you would be able to observe all changes regarding pricing terms, disclaimers, and other similar features.

How Does Legal Software Improve Website Archiving?

The traditional method of creating an archive via screenshot will surely fall short. This approach provides you with only the website's static pages; therefore, all its dropdown options, live chat, forms, drop-down menus, etc., will inevitably go unnoticed.

This is why lawyers nowadays tend to use specialized legal software designed for web archiving. It provides users with an exact copy of everything that happens during browsing, including dynamic pages. Also, it allows users to automatically organize everything and plan ahead when collecting information. Moreover, it provides additional metadata and operates on the write-once-read-many principle.

Audit Readiness and Record Accessibility

During audits, regulatory authorities do not ask for screenshots alone; they require a functioning copy of the actual site where one can click links and navigate freely. Legal archiving software allows the auditor to explore all pages of a legally preserved website, just as he would on the live one, including viewing attached files, watching videos, and ensuring that disclosures appear as intended.

Legal archiving software efficiently facilitates compliance review, as it eliminates the time-consuming manual compilation of static data. The user can freely search through records and filter out only what they need, thus spending much less time and effort on this task.

Building a Reliable Archiving Strategy

The first step in archiving is to define clear rules for capture schedules. Each updated version should be automatically archived and kept according to the specified time limits. With legal archiving software installed, all necessary procedures are done independently of any action taken on your side.

The second step is to secure the archives. Archives should be protected with encryption and secured with proper access control. Train your compliance staff to quickly retrieve and authenticate records as needed. An effective archiving strategy will allow you not only to meet all necessary regulations but also to improve your company's reputation.

Final Thoughts

Archiving is an important part of any defensible data retention and compliance strategy. Using the right software, one can ensure that website changes are captured and properly stored, and that the archived record can be retrieved in the event of compliance or litigation matters.

A good website archiving system is your insurance for the future. Investing in it now may save you time, money, and other resources later for compliance and audit processes