Futurelawyer

Internet Privacy May Be Dying, But It Isn't Completely Dead Yet.

Google New Privacy Tools. Privacy is still under attack on the Internet; but Google is still fighting the good fight. New privacy tools are making it easier to protect family and personal data and images; but it is up to you to learn about them, and to implement them in your use. Just as locks on doors are useless if you don't use them, Internet privacy tools are only beneficial if you learn how to use them. I have been preaching about multi-factor authentication for years, and I still see messages online about hackers invading user access. Get your act together, and learn about what you can do to ensure your privacy. It is up to you to make yourself a hard target. Most scammers will just move on to easier ones. Be careful out there.

#WhyIAmASolo - My Employer Doesn't Use TattleWare.

Tattleware - Employers May Be Tracking Home. Employers get nervous when they can't have complete control over their employees. It is likely a matter of lack of trust. But, as companies struggle to get Pandemic home workers back to the office, they are being called out for using software, called tattleware,  to monitor employees off site activities. Tattleware existed before the Pandemic; but, its utility and use exploded when employees started working from home. The sophisticated software can log keystrokes, beam images back to employer monitors, and pretty much record everything the employee does at the computer. The software even knows when the employee isn't working at the terminal. George Orwell, come on down. If you want to eliminate the possibility that your employer is spying on you, become your own employer.

Google History - Make The Past Disappear...Or Make It Never Happen.

You have control. You have the technology. You just need to do it. If you don't want some nosy busybody following you around the Internet, make yourself invisible. It is as easy as turning off your History in the Google Settings. Good luck figuring out where I went yesterday.

Rick's Newsletter - Law, Technology, Poetry, Computers, And Fun.

When Big Brother Arrives, You Won't Notice.

Qualcomm's New Always On Camera Triggers Privacy Concerns. Hey, fellow frogs, has anyone noticed that the temperature in this pot is rising? From lockdowns to mandatory vaccination to always on technology, is anyone concerned? Next year, new Android phones will come with cameras that are always on. Doesn't that bother anyone? We already have speakers that record every sound in a room, WiFi security cameras that stream video and sound to the cloud, and tech companies that record every keystroke and Google search. I have no problem with most of this tech, as long as the users are aware, and there are laws protecting abuse and overreach. But, will we wake up some day in a world that is able to be controlled by a very few? Or, are we already there? Our speech can be eliminated on a whim by a tech employee somewhere else, can't it? What we do say, or have ever said, can be virally loaded on the computer of every troll in the world, and the resulting cacophony can destroy our lives. What are you going to do about it, Pilgrim? Are you a free speech activist, or a victim? We need strong laws protecting privacy, and the ability to enforce it, if we wish. If the default is opt in, we need an easy way to opt out.

#WhyIAmASolo - I Can't Be Forced To Sit In Front Of A Computer Screen With Face Monitoring Software.

Lawyer Facial Recognition Monitoring. At first, I thought this was some kind of sick joke. But, no, many contract attorneys are now reporting that their employers have installed face monitoring and other software on their computers in order to track their work at remote locations. So, better be sitting and staring at the screen, and typing something. Big Brother is watching you. Go solo, young friends. Tell the overlords to take their facial recognition software and shove it. 

Forget Robots...It's The Digital Bots That Should Scare You.

Nightmare Bots. What if I told you that a mashup of existing tech could create a bot so real and so scary that it could literally drive a vulnerable person crazy? Think most charismatic and evil cult guru that ever existed in computer bot form. The combination of a powerful language generator GPT-3 and a face born from a generative adversarial network, perhaps with a deepfaked video clip thrown in here and there, could create an online experience that would shake a person to the core. How would it affect you to learn that you had become emotionally attached to an algorithm? Catfishing done by a computer algorithm is possible now, and makes online security even more important. For lawyers, this presents both a threat and an opportunity. Scammers are already using social engineering and computers to steal from unsuspecting persons by pretending to be something they are not. Rule of thumb...if you haven't met a prospective client or lover in the flesh, ignore them online. If you are hired by a client, you need to verify that they exist in the real world. Follow your gut. If something feels wrong, don't follow it. Be careful out there.

Well, Aren't You The Cutest Little Robot?

Police Robots Are A Privacy Nightmare. When Nikki Black linked to the EFF article about the new wave of police robots, I thought, what a cute little guy. It looks like a Conehead grown up. What harm could this guy do? Well, the robots of the future may not have Dalex like gun arms, and they certainly won't go around screaming: "Exterminate"; but, they will be little spies that report on human activity that they deem suspicious. How exactly, will I cross examine this thing? If we want to avoid a "Big Brother" future, we really need to regulate these things. Sometimes, I think that being an old man is a blessing.

Are You Careful About How You Connect To The Internet?

This FBI Warning Could Spoil Your Working Remotely At A Hotel Plan. Apparently, some workers aren't enjoying working remotely from home. Perhaps it is the constant family interruptions of young children. Whatever it is, some workers are going to hotels, and using the hotel WiFi. Most hotels are upfront about the security risk. They tout their "WiFi available" status; but, they fail to adequately secure the network. My only solid travel rule has been "never use Hotel WiFi". I have always contracted with a cell phone provider to access the Internet over an encrypted phone connection. I connect to it and bypass the free WiFi provided by the hotel. It is one thing to expose yourself to having your personal and banking information hijacked over an insecure hotel WiFi connection. It is quite another to have your confidential client information exposed. Be careful out there.

Google Knows What You Are Doing...What Are You Going To Do About It?

Google Collects A Frightening Amount Of Data About You...Delete It. I know. You don't do anything hinky online. You only search sites describing Churches and Food, and you never email sketchy people. Even so, what if I told you that Google (which I use all the time, because it performs useful services) knows your name, your face, your birthday, gender, other email addresses you use, your password and phone number? What if it determines what is public and what is not? When a new site asks you to sign up using Google (much easier than entering a lot of data) you click through the permissions without reading them, don't you? The company records every search you perform and every YouTube video you watch.  Google Maps logs everywhere you go, the route you use to get there and how long you stay -- even if you never open the app. I have always considered that this was okay (what better alibi than your computer location record?) but then I read about the guy who happened to be in the area of a crime on a regular basis, and who got arrested. So, ghost your Google masters on a regular basis. You know who is watching. Make them turn off the recorder. Do it now.