Thursday, June 25, 2020


It’s not hiding the evidence, is it?
How to make sure Google automatically deletes your data on a regular basis
Vox: “…The company announced on Wednesday that auto-delete will be the default setting for user account activity settings. That said, this “default” setting only applies to new accounts or existing accounts that now turn on data retention after having it disabled. And the default auto-delete time still gives Google as much as three years of your data, as opposed to manual auto-delete settings that keep as little as three months’ worth. Google also announced that its account privacy and security settings will soon be accessible through its search page. You’ll also be able to switch over to Chrome’s Incognito mode in its apps more easily — simply press down on your profile photo for a second or two. Incognito mode lets you browse the internet “privately,” which means Google Chrome won’t save your history or cookies on your computer. It does not, however, mean that the websites you visit or the server you use can’t see what you’re doing. The Google announcement comes just a couple days after rival Apple announced some new privacy features for its software. More on that in a second. If you have a Google account and use Google products like Gmail, YouTube, or Chrome, you’re probably logged in all the time. In this case, your activity while using those apps and services can be tracked by Google, which will then use that data to target ads to you, among other things. Over the years, Google has introduced privacy controls over the data you send the company and has made efforts to make those features more obvious to users. You can find most of these privacy controls in your account settings by clicking on “Manage your data & personalization.” From there, you can click on “Manage your activity controls.” This is the section where you can save your web and app activity, location history, and YouTube history if you want Google to use that data to give you what it calls a “more personalized experience.” Or you can just ask Google not to save anything and have an impersonal, but more private, experience…”


(Related)
UK Information Commissioner Says Police Are Grabbing Too Much Data From Phones Owned By Crime Victims
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has taken a look at what law enforcement officers are hoovering up from citizens' phones and doesn't like what it sees. The relentless march of technology has enabled nearly everyone to walk around with a voluminous, powerful computer in their pocket – one filled with the details and detritus of everyday living. And that relentless march has propelled citizens and their pocket computers right into the UK's regulatory void.
The ICO's report [PDF] doesn't just deal with the amount of data and communications UK cops can get from suspects' phones. It also deals with the insane amount of data cops are harvesting from devices owned by victims and witnesses of criminal acts. Left unaddressed, the lack of a solid legal framework surrounding mobile phone extractions (MPEs) will continue to lead law enforcement officers to believe they can harvest everything and look for the relevant stuff at their leisure.




In case you missed it.
Average Cost of a Data Breach: $116M
The authors of the "Trends in Cybersecurity Breach Disclosures report from Audit Analytics reviewed 639 cybersecurity breaches at public companies since 2011 and discovered that, on average, each cyber breach costs $116 million.




What’s in a name?” Shocking as it may sound, I believe that Russians can read. As long as they see a loophole, they will gladly exploit it.
Cyberwarfare in Latvia: A Call for New Cyberwarfare Terminology
Two recent Russian malicious cyber operations in Latvia targeted the government and a social media platform. But, legally, those instances do not rise to the level of a “cyberattack” as defined by the Tallinn Manual 2.0. Despite not satisfying the elements of a cyberattack per se, the Kremlin is nonetheless using disinformation campaigns and other cyber activity tactics to create instability abroad, and international rules on cyberwarfare and cyberattacks must be reevaluated to include these new forms of warfare. The current terminology is inadequate: “cyber activity” and “cyber operation,” which have been used to define such attacks, suggest Russia’s actions are not serious or harmful. Instead, a new term like “soft power cyberattacks” should be coined to reflect the changes in cyberwarfare and provide governments appropriate recourse.
The Tallinn Manual 2.0, published by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and international law experts, is the current most comprehensive, but non-binding, source on international law and cyber operations. According to the manual, “A cyberattack is a cyber operation, whether offensive or defensive, that is reasonably expected to cause injury or death to persons or damage or destruction to objects,” during an armed conflict. However, under the Tallinn Manual, cyber espionage—or any act that is used “to gather, or attempt to gather information”—is considered legal during peacetime.




Undue reliance. (Even I, the non-lawyer, know this goes back to at least 1964: Ford Motor Credit v. Swarens https://itlaw.wikia.org/wiki/Ford_Motor_Credit_v._Swarens )
Wrongfully Accused by an Algorithm
ars technica: “Civil rights activists have filed an official complaint against the Detroit police, alleging the department arrested the wrong man based on a faulty and incorrect match provided by facial recognition software—the first known complaint of this kind. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the complaint (PDF ) Wednesday on behalf of Robert Williams, a Michigan man who was arrested in January based on a false positive generated by facial recognition software. “At every step, DPD’s conduct has been improper,” the complaint alleges. “It unthinkingly relied on flawed and racist facial recognition technology without taking reasonable measures to verify the information being provided” as part of a “shoddy and incomplete investigation.”…
[Much omitted Bob]




Just when I was learning to spell CCPA…
California Privacy Rights Act to Appear on November 2020 Ballot
It’s official. The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) has received enough valid signatures to appear on the November 2020 ballot. And if polling from late last year remains accurate, California voters are likely to approve it. If voters approve the initiative, the CPRA would significantly expand the CCPA, establish the California Privacy Protection Agency, remove the CCPA’s cure period, and impose a number of GDPR-styled obligations on businesses, among other requirements. The substantive provisions of the CPRA would take effect January 1, 2023.




Hard to tell when the President is serious, joking, or simply out of touch.
Could Donald Trump claim a national security threat to shut down the internet?
... An obscure provision tucked at the back of the Communications Act (Sec.706, codified as 47 USC 606) empowers the president to “cause the closing of any station for radio communications” (such as broadcasting or mobile phone networks) as well as “cause the closing of any facility or station for wire communications” (such as telephone and internet networks). All that is necessary for the exercise of these huge powers is a “proclamation by the President” of “national emergency” in the case of broadcast stations and mobile phones, or the “interest of the national security” for the internet or telephone networks. The statute also gives the president the power to suspend or amend FCC regulations.
Such authority makes one tremble when considered alongside Donald Trump’s stated belief, “When somebody’s the President of the United States, the authority is total.” His recent threat to social media platforms to “close them down” continues his efforts to use government authority to coerce and manipulate the media.




We’ve changed our mind… (Or lost it)
Google will start paying publishers to license content
In a major departure from its long-standing practice of not paying publishers directly to distribute their work, Google executives tell Axios that the search giant is creating a licensing program to pay publishers "for high-quality content" as a part of a new news product launching later this year.
Why it matters: Regulators around the world have been threatening Google with broad-based policies that would force it to pay publishers on policymakers' terms. Google aims to get ahead of that threat by introducing its own payout terms, while also strengthening its relationship with the embattled publishing community.




Not sure I agree, unless there will be an asterisk next to their degree? Are they also teaching how to use the tools law firms are likely to continue to use even after the pandemic has run its course?
Subpar in Every Aspect’: Harvard Law Student Sues Over Online Classes
Law.com – “A Harvard Law student has filed a class action against the university, arguing that students should be charged a lower tuition for online classes on the grounds that they are inferior to in-person instruction. Harvard is the latest target in a wave of litigation focused on college and university tuition reimbursements amid the COVID-19 pandemic—at least 100 campuses have been sued thus far. Plaintiffs firms Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, which is representing incoming second-year law student Abraham Barkhordar, has also filed suit against 13 other universities. Barkhordar’s complaint, which seeks to represent all Harvard students and not just those who attend the law school, takes issue not only with the fact that students were not issued tuition refunds last spring when classes shifted online, but also that the law school plans to keep tuition at the same level of $65,875 even though the fall semester will be entirely remote. “While Plaintiff’s coursework requires group projects and collaboration, such teamwork is now significantly harder to orchestrate,” reads the complaint, filed June 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. “Plaintiff has also been unable to connect with professors and classmates on the same level online as he had in-person and is similarly lacking the intellectual stimulation of the in-person learning environment.”…


(Related)
Get A Comfortable Chair: Permanent Work From Home Is Coming
NPR – “Indefinite. Or even permanent. These are words companies are using about their employees working from home. It’s three months into a huge, unplanned social experiment that suddenly transported the white-collar workplace from cubicles and offices to kitchens and spare bedrooms. And many employers now say the benefits of remote work outweigh the drawbacks. Tech companies Twitter and Facebook captured headlines with announcements about permanent work from home. But the news from a 94-year-old company based in the heartland — Columbus, Ohio — may have been even more significant. Nationwide Insurance is shutting five regional offices since remote work has gone off so smoothly during the pandemic. And thousands of employees will permanently ditch their commutes for home offices… One potential change: Demand for commercial real estate falls due to the growth of remote work and the realities of a painful economic downturn. For example, 90% of the 60,000 employees at investment bank Morgan Stanley have been working remotely during the pandemic. Lesson learned, according to Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman…”



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