The Evidentiary Value of Chat Logs as Electronic Evidence in Consignment Transactions

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the validity of agreements in social media-based deposit service transactions and to formulate strategies to strengthen the evidentiary power of chat logs within the realm of civil procedure law. The research method employed is normative juridical, through a combination of legislative and conceptual approaches. The results of the study reveal two main findings. First, the agreement on the deposit service transaction has met the qualifications for the validity of an agreement as stipulated in Article 1320 of the Civil Code, whereby both subjective and objective requirements are satisfied through the offer and acceptance mechanism, verification of digital capacity and financial independence, certainty of the object via invoice, and the existence of good faith on the part of business actors. Second, the evidentiary power of chat logs serves only as preliminary evidence, as it is vulnerable to data manipulation and denial. Therefore, the evidentiary power of electronic documents must be transformed into valid, strong, and binding evidence through the application of digital forensics focusing on digital metadata examination. Metadata examination is applied adaptively through three conditions: extraction of the phone's local database, analysis of thumbcaches and browser artifacts, and cloud backup file downloads and server network log searches. Validation of the authenticity of metadata through hash and timestamp values produces the highest degree of material truth that is resistant to manipulation, in order to meet the requirements for document integrity pursuant to Article 6 of the ITE Law.