Case Study:
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco

Website and Social Media Recordkeeping for Compliance and eDiscovery

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R.J. Reynolds Tobacco (RJRT) is the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S., and is responsible for no less than a third of all cigarette sales across the country. Its brands include Camel, Newport, and Pall Mall.

Given the nature of its industry, RJRT has some Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements, as well as certain litigation-hold standards that it needs to comply with, which is why it needs to keep accurate records of online content.

Originally, when the company only had a website and wasn’t making use of social media yet, it simply captured web pages manually in order to meet the above mentioned requirements. When R.J. Reynolds Tobacco became active on social media, however, it decided to implement an automated archiving solution that would streamline recordkeeping and help ensure that there wouldn’t be any gaps in records that could lead to complications.

“We now have Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts for both the specific brands and the larger organization—around 15 accounts in total,” says Jim Fradenburg, Outside Counsel for RJRT. “When we decided to start making use of an electronic records management solution, we had a look at what was available on the market and reviewed a couple of vendors. In the end, we realized that Pagefreezer was the only company that could satisfy both our business and our legal needs.”

Simplifying Compliance and eDiscovery Workflow

When it comes to proving compliance and preparing for potential litigation, Pagefreezer records have proved useful for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in both instances.

“We’ve made use of archives for both compliance and eDiscovery,” says Fradenburg. “We essentially use a litigation database and review platform when it comes to the eDiscovery process, and we load PDFs of our records into that. From there, we can process and review the documents.”
Once identified, relevant pages and posts can be added to a case folder (simplifying case management) and exported in PDF. From there, records can be uploaded to an eDiscovery platform or other solutions for processing and review.

Organizations can also rest assured that records will meet the high demands of compliance and litigation requirements by making associated metadata available, and providing both a SHA-256 digital signature and a timestamp that prove data integrity and authenticity.

“I’d say that Pagefreezer is an essential part of our regulatory submissions and plays an important part in meeting our litigation needs,” says Fradenburg. “It has proved itself to be the most accurate and efficient way of capturing sites and pages for recordkeeping.”
All of the above can be done through Pagefreezer’s user-friendly dashboard that allows users to browse archives in the same look and feel as the original social media network. Pagefreezer displays all message types, images, comments, and replies to comments in the same way as they appeared on the original social media platform.
“The dashboard seems to work very well,” says Fradenburg. That said, however, we have some complicated challenges and requirements, especially in the regulatory space. Pagefreezer’s staff have always been very responsive to questions and issues we encounter as website and social media technologies continue to evolve.”

See Pagefreezer in Action

Are you looking for website, social media, or Microsoft Teams recordkeeping solutions for information governance, eDiscovery or compliance? Let us show you how we’re helping 1800+ organizations streamline their workflows and get peace of mind knowing every post, edit, and change is captured and preserved.

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