If Iran can do it, anyone can.

https://theintercept.com/2022/10/28/iran-protests-phone-surveillance/

HACKED DOCUMENTS: HOW IRAN CAN TRACK AND CONTROL PROTESTERS’ PHONES

The documents provide an inside look at an Iranian government program that lets authorities monitor and manipulate people’s phones.

… According to these internal documents, SIAM is a computer system that works behind the scenes of Iranian cellular networks, providing its operators a broad menu of remote commands to alter, disrupt, and monitor how customers use their phones. The tools can slow their data connections to a crawl, break the encryption of phone calls, track the movements of individuals or large groups, and produce detailed metadata summaries of who spoke to whom, when, and where. Such a system could help the government invisibly quash the ongoing protests — or those of tomorrow — an expert who reviewed the SIAM documents told The Intercept.

“SIAM can control if, where, when, and how users can communicate,” explained Gary Miller, a mobile security researcher and fellow at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. “In this respect, this is not a surveillance system but rather a repression and control system to limit the capability of users to dissent or protest.”

Surveillance by any other name…

https://fpf.org/blog/federal-court-deems-universitys-use-of-room-scans-within-the-home-unconstitutional/

FEDERAL COURT DEEMS UNIVERSITY’S USE OF ROOM SCANS WITHIN THE HOME UNCONSTITUTIONAL

A federal court recently ruled that a public university’s use of room-scanning technology during a remotely proctored exam violated a student’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy. The decision in Ogletree v. CSU is the clearest indication to date of how courts will treat Fourth Amendment challenges to public higher education institutions’ use of video room scans within students’ homes. Schools, test administrators, and professional licensure boards often use proctoring technologies in an effort to dissuade cheating by remote test takers. These technologies take a variety of forms and may involve live proctors observing test takers via webcam, eye-tracking technology, artificial intelligence, recording via webcam and microphone, plug-ins that disable a test taker’s computer from accessing third-party websites or stored materials, and room scans. At issue in this case was a room scan of a student’s bedroom workspace.

But we think it’s useful…

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/27/live-facial-recognition-police-study-uk

UK police use of live facial recognition unlawful and unethical, report finds

Police should be banned from using live facial recognition technology in all public spaces because they are breaking ethical standards and human rights laws, a study has concluded.

Ask instead, will lawyers turn down paying clients?

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/can-an-ai-hire-a-lawyer-7525341/

Can an AI Hire a Lawyer?

A recently-fired Google engineer claims that the company’s artificial intelligence program has become sentient, and—even worse—has hired a lawyer. A court may now have to face a question once considered only theoretical: is a human-like artificial intelligence (AI) a “person” in the eyes of the law?

… As it stands, California law does not appear to preclude non-human sentients. When it comes to the laws governing attorneys, neither the California Constitution nor the State Bar Act defines who (or what) is a “person.” The California Rules of Professional Conduct refer to Evidence Code section 175 for their definition of “person.” California’s Evidence Code states that a “‘[p]erson’ includes a natural person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, or public entity (emphasis supplied).”