Deduplication in the context of e-discovery processing is the process of comparing electronic files to identify and remove duplicate copies, retaining only a single instance. This is a critical data volume reduction technique. Relativity's processing engine calculates a hash value for each document and uses it to identify duplicates at a global or custodial level. By removing redundant documents, deduplication reduces storage costs, minimizes the number of documents that need to be reviewed, and increases the efficiency of the overall e-discovery workflow.

A. Deleting all files is data destruction, whereas deduplication is a selective process to remove only redundant files.

C. Encrypting data is a security measure to protect information, not a method for reducing data volume by removing duplicates.

D. Sorting documents is a way to organize a document list for review and is unrelated to removing duplicate files.

1. Relativity. (n.d.). Processing. Relativity Documentation. Retrieved from https://help.relativity.com/RelativityOne/Content/Relativity/Processing/Processing.htm (The overview describes deduplication as a key feature of the processing workflow).

2. Relativity. (n.d.). Processing profiles. Relativity Documentation. Retrieved from https://help.relativity.com/RelativityOne/Content/Relativity/Processing/Processingprofiles.htm (See the "Deduplication method" field description for a technical explanation of how it works).