It is common practice to conduct personal or business communications through mobile instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Telegram, as well as through the instant messaging apps offered by social networks such as Facebook or Instagram.
The certification of a WhatsApp conversation involves a computer system architecture that must be properly analysed by a qualified professional in order to certify its authenticity. For this reason, professionals such as notaries or court clerks may lack the corresponding professional qualification to certify or refute the authenticity of a conversation recorded on WhatsApp.
In court proceedings, it may be the case that a conversation recorded in an instant messaging app, conducted between two or more parties, is submitted as a printed copy. This document not only provides no guarantee that the conversation is authentic, but what is submitted, even if based on an original conversation, may have been intentionally manipulated or deliberately fabricated.
At Peritajes Gámez, we prepare the computer forensics expert report that provides sufficient certainty to the proceedings and clarifies any disputed issues. Supreme Court Judgment (STS) 754/2015 confirms that the guideline for submitting digital evidence in judicial proceedings is to produce a computer forensics expert report by a qualified computer expert.
