As we feared.

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/majority-of-businesses-unprepared-for-reputational-damage-and-lawsuits-stemming-from-technology-risks/

Majority of Businesses Unprepared for Reputational Damage and Lawsuits Stemming From Technology Risks

A new report from global law firm Hogan Lovells has surveyed 550 international business decision-makers and found that their organizations are usually not prepared for legal issues arising from technology risks.

68% of the respondents said that technology is a core part of their growth strategy, but 50% do not have an up-to-date cybersecurity incident response strategy and only 31% drafted that strategy in consultation with a legal team. Among other alarming statistics revealed by the study, about two-thirds of organizations are not properly screening the credentials of third-party vendors to safeguard against a supply chain breach.

Entitled “Litigation Landscape: How to Prevail When Technology Fails,” the report surveyed general counsels and data privacy officers at international companies with an annual turnover of between $200 million and $1 billion.

Will this go back down under Biden?

https://www.pogowasright.org/amazon-says-government-demands-for-user-data-spiked-by-800-in-2020/

Amazon says government demands for user data spiked by 800% in 2020

Zack Whittaker reports:

New transparency figures released by Amazon show the company responded to a record number of government data demands in the last six months of 2020.

The new figures land in the company’s bi-annual transparency report published to Amazon’s website over the weekend.

Read more on TechCrunch.

Kind of backwards. Worth reading.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210131/01114246154/no-getting-rid-anonymity-will-not-fix-social-media-it-will-cause-more-problems.shtml

No, Getting Rid Of Anonymity Will Not Fix Social Media; It Will Cause More Problems

There's an idea that pops up every so often among people who are upset about misinformation online but don't actually understand the realities of online communities and the dynamics of how it all works: it's the idea that "anonymity" is the root cause of many of the internet's problems. We've spent years debunking this, though it's been nearly a decade since there was a previous focus on this issue -- and it's now coming back.

I have several concerns with this technique.

https://thenextweb.com/neural/2021/02/01/german-investigators-to-use-deepfake-images-of-child-sexual-abuse-to-bust-online-predators/

German investigators to use Deepfake images of child sexual abuse to bust online predators

German lawmakers recently passed legislation allowing child sexual abuse investigators to deploy artificially-generated images in their efforts to snare online predators.

Recent crackdowns in the European nation have resulted in several arrests amid nationwide investigations. This comes on the heels of reports from mid-2020 indicating authorities were “overwhelmed” by the number of reported incidents.

In the country’s efforts to fight child sexual abuse, investigators and child advocacy groups have requested the use of Deepfake generators to produce artificial “kinderpornografie.” This, reportedly, would include imagery created using a database containing actual images of child sexual abuse.

The reasoning for the investigators’ request, according to a report from local news outlet Suddeutsche Zeitung, is so undercover agents can infiltrate child sexual abuse rings. The so-called “darkeweb” groups often solicit images from prospective new members as a form of initiation and vetting.

It’s typically illegal for officers of the law to provide investigative targets with actual depictions of child sexual abuse. But, despite the ethical concerns surrounding the generation of novel, artificial depictions of child sexual abuse, experts in Germany believe the use of such materials will make it easier to identify and arrest predators who operate online.

For my researchers…

https://www.bespacific.com/online-research-browsers-and-data-visualization-tools-2021/

Online Research Browsers and Data Visualization Tools 2021

Via LLRX – Online Research Browsers and Data Visualization Tools 2021 – This guide by Marcus P. Zillman focuses on free and feed based research browsers and data visualization tools for research and analysis. These resources can be used to support legal research, legal marketing, business and competitive intelligence research, knowledge management and knowledge discovery, and data mining.

Could be a handy tool.

https://www.bespacific.com/a-quick-way-to-learn-more-about-your-search-results/

A quick way to learn more about your search results

Google Blog” “When you search for information on Google, you probably often come across results from sources that you’re familiar with: major retailer websites, national news sites and more. But there’s also a ton of great information on and services available from sites that you may not have come across before. And while you can always use Google to do some additional research about those sites, we’re working on a new way for you to find helpful info without having to do another search. Starting today, next to most results on Google, you’ll begin to see a menu icon that you can tap to learn more about the result or feature and where the information is coming from. With this additional context, you can make a more informed decision about the sites you may want to visit and what results will be most useful for you…”

Worth taking a look?

https://www.makeuseof.com/best-websites-apps-that-improve-your-prose/

The 8 Best Websites and Apps That Will Help Improve Your Prose

Likely to be a huge area of research.

https://www.bespacific.com/how-america-changed-during-donald-trumps-presidency/

How America Changed During Donald Trump’s Presidency

Pew – “Donald Trump stunned the political world in 2016 when he became the first person without government or military experience ever to be elected president of the United States. His four-year tenure in the White House revealed extraordinary fissures in American society but left little doubt that he is a figure unlike any other in the nation’s history. Trump, the New York businessman and former reality TV show star, won the 2016 election after a campaign that defied norms and commanded public attention from the moment it began. His approach to governing was equally unconventional. Other presidents tried to unify the nation after turning from the campaign trail to the White House. From his first days in Washington to his last, Trump seemed to revel in the political fight. He used his presidential megaphone to criticize a long list of perceived adversaries, from the news media to members of his own administration, elected officials in both political parties and foreign heads of state. The more than 26,000 tweets he sent as president provided an unvarnished, real-time account of his thinking on a broad spectrum of issues and eventually proved so provocative that Twitter permanently banned him from its platform. In his final days in office, Trump became the first president ever to be impeached twice – the second time for inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol during the certification of the election he lost – and the nation’s first chief executive in more than 150 years to refuse to attend his successor’s inauguration…

Many questions about Trump’s legacy and his role in the nation’s political future will take time to answer. But some takeaways from his presidency are already clear from Pew Research Center’s studies in recent years. In this essay, we take a closer look at a few of the key societal shifts that accelerated – or emerged for the first time – during the tenure of the 45th president…”

Oh, now you start thinking about security… Perhaps floppy disks? Perhaps encryption? Must they go all the way back to paper?

https://www.databreaches.net/russian-hack-brings-changes-uncertainty-to-us-court-system/

Russian hack brings changes, uncertainty to US court system

MaryClaire Dale of AP reports:

Trial lawyer Robert Fisher is handling one of America’s most prominent counterintelligence cases, defending an MIT scientist charged with secretly helping China. But how he’ll handle the logistics of the case could feel old school: Under new court rules, he’ll have to print out any highly sensitive documents and hand-deliver them to the courthouse.

Until recently, even the most secretive material — about wiretaps, witnesses and national security concerns – could be filed electronically. But that changed after the massive Russian hacking campaign that breached the U.S. court system’s electronic case files and those of scores of other federal agencies and private companies.

Read more on CBS19.

Looks like the next “Big Thing” for law enforcement. (32 in Colorado) Similar to the spread of cameras that prompted Justice Brandeis to define the right to be ‘let alone?’

https://www.ft.com/content/61968b3b-c093-4c4a-a7b7-29b565bc0bc0

US police and fire departments partnering with Amazon’s Ring passes 2,000

Figures published by Amazon on Friday showed that 1,189 departments in the US were added to the programme in 2020, with the total — including 305 fire departments — now at 2,014, with 62 having been added so far in 2021.

All but two of the 50 US states — Montana and Wyoming — now have departments involved with the Ring programme, which allows officials to contact users in a particular area and ask them to provide captured footage via Ring’s app to assist investigations.

Perhaps not all lip service. Apple does see some competitive advantage in Privacy.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tim-cook-privacy-most-important-issues/

Tim Cook Says Privacy Is One of Humanity's Most Important Issues

From the possible regulations being discussed to tame the tech giants to whether or not Apple should build and release an Apple Car and AR glasses, there are plenty of topics that have got to weigh on the mind of Apple CEO Tim Cook.

But according to an interview with Fast Company, there's one that he views as more important than just about any: privacy.

This smells phoney. It assume any operating system, any encryption, any technology can be identified and immediately overridden to take control. Something it will need to do in seconds, not weeks.

https://interestingengineering.com/ai-powered-counter-drone-system-forces-threats-to-land-autonomously

AI-Powered Counter Drone System Forces Threats to Land Autonomously

… Citadel's Titan system forces drones to land safely without disrupting nearby communications or electronics — something that will come in as handy in complex urban areas as in rural ones.

… The system uses AI and machine learning to pick up drone swarm threats in a matter of weeks, compared with months or sometimes even years.

For the ‘Cheaper Alternative’ toolkit.

https://www.makeuseof.com/best-excel-alternatives-for-spreadsheet-needs/

The 10 Best Excel Alternatives for Your Spreadsheet Needs

Looking for a cheaper alternative to Microsoft Excel? These spreadsheet apps offer everything you need for less.

Summary.

https://2020.internethealthreport.org/year-in-review/

Mozilla Internet Health Report 2020

… This past year, more than ever, human health was intrinsically tied to internet health. It was a year riddled with loss and charged with accelerated change, as the global pandemic and the climate crisis ailed everyone collectively, but also deepened inequities.

… The seven companies that have consolidated power over the internet and its infrastructure saw their profits skyrocket and power increase as global dependency on ‘big tech’ grew stronger with pandemic lockdowns. At the same time, politicians in multiple countries sharpened and finetuned legal challenges to anti-competitive and privacy-eroding practices with an increase of court cases and fines.

Opinion.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/how-automation-will-soon-impact-us-all-657269

How automation will soon impact us all

… Automation 1.0 replaced most of the workers on assembly lines with machines that didn’t make Monday-morning mistakes, didn’t join trade unions, didn’t even have to be paid.

Automation 2.0 is mostly online, and it’s focused on retail. The department stores were mostly gone even before COVID and the smaller shops are going now, swallowed up by Amazon and its many smaller rivals.

Automation 3.0 is almost here, and the new targets this time will be managerial and professional jobs – not all of them, of course, but whole layers of middle management in business and lesser-skilled positions in medicine, law, accountancy and allied trades.

Might we find the same obstacles elsewhere?

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2775428

Obstacles to Implementing AI Tools in Health Care

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have shown promise in predicting patients’ health trajectories, recommending treatments, guiding surgical care, monitoring patients, and supporting efforts to improve the health of a community, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

In addition, the report said, AI has the potential to reduce clinicians’ workload and increase efficiency of administrative tasks.

However, obstacles could impede widespread adoption of AI tools, the GAO found. Technology developers encounter difficulties obtaining the data needed to create effective AI tools, and limitations and bias in those data could reduce the tools’ safety and effectiveness for some patients.

… Privacy concerns grow as more AI systems are developed. In addition, uncertainty about liability, stemming from the multitude of parties involved in developing, deploying, and using AI tools, could slow adoption and impede innovation.

I hope they didn’t fire the singers…

https://lifehacker.com/conduct-your-very-own-blob-opera-even-if-you-cant-read-1846163088

Conduct Your Very Own Blob Opera (Even if You Can't Read Music)

… True, it takes practice, practice, practice to end up in Carnegie Hall, but you only need to be on a device connected to the internet to conduct Blob Opera. To get started, follow these instructions from Li:

Drag the blobs up and down to change pitch. Or forwards and backwards for different vowel sounds. Another machine learning model lets the blobs respond to and harmonize your input in real time.

Really, it’s more than just conducting: you’re able to create and record original compositions for Blob Opera, then share them with your friends, family and others who have probably never even hinted at having any desire to listen to a computer-generated opera number, but will surely thank you for this gift.

Free ebook.

https://symbiandevzone.tradepub.com/free/w_pinn25/

The Evolution of Analytics

Over the last several decades, organizations have relied heavily on analytics to provide them with competitive advantage and enable them to be more effective. Organizations are now forced to look deeper into their data to find new and innovative ways to increase efficiency and competitiveness. With recent advances in science and technology, particularly in machine learning, organizations are adopting larger, more comprehensive analytics strategies. This report provides a guide to some of the opportunities that are available for using machine learning in business, and how to overcome some of the key challenges of incorporating machine learning into an analytics strategy.

Better than ‘wave Harry Potter’s wand’ but probably not the what will happen. Think of the cost of enforcement, for example.

https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/29/5-ways-to-finally-fix-data-privacy-in-america/

5 ways to finally fix data privacy in America

As a new administration enters the White House, we have the chance to finally fix privacy in America. Short of passing a national privacy law (which the majority of Americans want), we need action on data privacy. We need changes enacted swiftly and without delay. Both consumers and businesses deserve consistency and clarity.

… In that spirit, here are five ideas to make privacy work for consumers and businesses. A couple of them could likely even be mandated by Executive Order.

1. Make privacy opt-in

2. Require plain English privacy policies

3. Mandate privacy labels

4. Give data an expiration date

5. Make protecting data cheaper than abusing it

It’s obvious, isn’t it?

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/consider-the-ai-influence-on-medical-9825915/

Consider the AI Influence on Medical Liability

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to evolve and to incorporate its way into our lives. Versions of AI now routinely tell Americans where to eat, what routes to take, and what movies to watch. Artificial Intelligence is also making in-roads into medical decision-making, as diagnosis and treatment recommendations become more personalized. That has raised concerns from some commentators, who have suggested that America’s tort law system could prove a problematic fit with medical AI. If jurors see the act of listening to the computer as something that deviates from a doctor’s judgment and standard of care, than machine-centered advice could increase or complicate medical liability risk.

Researchers (Price, Gehrke & Cohen, 2021) looked at that question of whether juror attitudes might be a barrier to reliance on medical AI. The article, “How Much Can Potential Jurors Tell Us About Liability for Medical Artificial Intelligence?” focused on the circumstances under which jurors would hold a physician liable for following or not following an AI recommendation.

Not sure I agree, but watch and judge for yourself.

https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/free-science-fiction-movies-streaming-online-january-2021-ai

YOU NEED TO WATCH THE MOST STUNNING SCI-FI MOVIE OF THE CENTURY FOR FREE ONLINE ASAP

WHAT IF ROBOTS WERE JUST LIKE US? It’s a question movies have been asking since Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. The idea took on renewed interest in the tech-obsessed 1980s with The Terminator and Blade Runner, but its apex might just be the closest thing we ever got to a collaboration between two of the greatest minds in sci-fi cinema: STEVEN SPEILBERG AND STANLEY KUBRICK.

I'm talking, of course, about A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, which is available to stream free on Crackle. Here's why you really need to watch (or rewatch) this science fiction classic.

Is LinkedIn the ultimate job-finding tool?

https://www.makeuseof.com/download-linkedin-profile-as-resume/

How to Make a Resume From Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn lets you easily turn your profile into a downloadable PDF to use as a resume.

Evidence of actual harm, not risk of harm. It’s the time between breach and harm that concerns me.

https://www.databreaches.net/data-breach-defense/

Data Breach Defense

David Oberly of Blank Rome writes:

Today, data breaches continue to proliferate at a rapid pace, often spurring consumer class action litigation in their wake. Oftentimes, a successful data breach suit can empty a corporate defendant’s coffers. For example, Equifax was recently forced to shell out $575 million to settle a major data breach class action suit stemming from its 2017 mega-breach that impacted over 100 million individuals. Consequently, companies that handle consumer personal data must be prepared to forcefully defend such high-stakes, bet-the-company litigation.

Fortunately, Article III standing serves as a viable defense to obtain dispositive dismissals from a wide range of data breach class actions in federal court. While a current circuit split exists over the threshold for establishing standing in such cases, the standard articulated by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals provides a significant opportunity for defendants to completely dispose of litigation at the pleading stage based on an absence of constitutional standing.

Originally published in the January/February 2021 edition of Cincinnati Bar Association Report, which you can download here.

Reluctant and defensive? A muddled response.

https://www.pogowasright.org/police-chief-demands-holes-in-encryption-because-some-cops-decided-to-participate-in-the-dc-insurrection/

Police Chief Demands Holes In Encryption Because Some Cops Decided To Participate In The DC Insurrection

Tim Cushing writes:

As more evidence comes to light showing a disturbing amount of law enforcement participation in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, police departments around the nation are finally being forced to face something they’ve ignored for far too long.

The law enforcement officers who participated in the insurrection attacked officers attempting to defend the building, or, at the very least, did nothing to discourage the lawless actions occurring all around them. The officers that went to DC and engaged in a riot aren’t an anomaly.

[…]

Now that agencies are finally confronting their in-house white supremacist/militia problem, they’re asking for everyone to be made less secure so they can handle the problem that’s been hiding in plain sight for years.

Read more on TechDirt.

If there was something illegal on the phone, why keep the phone and let the owner go free?

https://www.pogowasright.org/immigration-lawyer-sues-over-seizure-of-his-cellphone-at-airport/

Immigration lawyer sues over seizure of his cellphone at airport

Debra Cassens Weiss reports:

Texas immigration lawyer Adam A. Malik has sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for seizing and retaining his iPhone when he returned to the United States from a trip to Costa Rica.

Malik’s Jan. 25 lawsuit says the government seized his phone and searched the contents absent reasonable suspicion that it contained contraband or evidence of illegality. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not obtain a warrant.

Read more on ABA Journal.

Not perfect, but people flagged by the dogs will take the Covid test rather than admit the dog actually detected one or more controlled substances.

https://www.bespacific.com/miami-heat-to-screen-fans-with-coronavirus-sniffing-dogs/

Miami Heat to screen fans with coronavirus-sniffing dogs

Axios: “The Heat will use coronavirus-sniffing dogs to screen fans ahead of tonight’s game at AmericanAirlines Arena, when ~1,500 season ticket holders will be permitted inside for the first time this season. Why it matters: The Heat are the first NBA team to try this approach, which has been used at airports in Chile, Finland and the United Arab Emirates. By the numbers: A German study last year found that trained dogs were able to sniff out COVID-19 with 94% accuracy…”

Podcast.

https://www.insideprivacy.com/eu-data-protection/inside-privacy-audiocast-episode-10-data-privacy-day-2021-trends-to-watch/

Inside Privacy Audiocast: Episode 10 – Data Privacy Day 2021: Trends to Watch

Interesting idea. So far, no teeth?

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/28/22252935/global-privacy-control-personal-data-tracking-ccpa-cpra-gdpr-duckduckgo?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4

GLOBAL PRIVACY CONTROL WANTS TO SUCCEED WHERE DO NOT TRACK FAILED

On today’s internet, information is nearly impossible to control. It’s become commonplace for a single website visit to spill over into targeted ads (often for something you’ve already bought) or unexpectedly canny spam emails. It’s assumed that information from your browsing history will be available to target your Instagram ads, and despite nominal commitments to privacy, tech companies have mostly given up trying to stop those data flows.

Privacy groups are hoping that a new standard, called Global Privacy Control, will change that. It’s designed as a global opt out, a general signal that users want as little data collection and sharing as possible. In particular, the GPC standard will let users signal that they don’t want services to share their data with third-party data brokers, something that is outside the reach of most modern privacy tools. The team hopes that this new signal will give users a way to protect their data after it’s been collected and ensure personal information doesn’t travel too far.

… The GPC standard sprang from a powerful but little-noticed provision in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which was strengthened further with the passage of the California Privacy Rights Act in November. A provision in the law gives Californians the right to opt out of having their personal information sold by the sites they visit. Crucially, the law interprets “sell” as including any exchange of value, which could include being read broadly enough to go beyond outright data broker sales and into the endemic tracking pixels that power much of the advertising you see online.

Do they pay more attention to adsthan I do?

https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-ad-targeting-us-military/

Facebook Ad Services Let Anyone Target US Military Personnel

THE SPREAD OF misinformation on social media platforms has fueled division, stoked violence, and reshaped geopolitics in recent years. Targeted ads have become a major battleground, with bad actors strategically distributing misleading information or ensnaring unassuming users in scams. Facebook has worked to eliminate or redefine certain targeting categories as part of a broader effort to address these threats. But despite warnings from researchers, its ad system still lets anyone target a massive array of populations and groups—including campaigns directed at United States military personnel. Currently categories for major branches include “Army,” “Air Force,” and “National Guard,” along with much narrower categories like “United States Air Force Security Forces.”

At first blush it may seem innocuous that you can target ads at these groups as easily as you can most other organizations. But independent security researcher Andrea Downing says the stakes are much higher should active duty members of the US military—many of whom would likely get caught up in broader Facebook targeting of this sort—face misinformation online that could impact their understanding of world events or expose them to scams.

Summary: The Earth forms, stuff happens.

https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/28/researchers-propose-ai-system-that-summarizes-historical-texts/

Researchers propose AI system that summarizes historical texts

Summarizing historical text can help people gather, organize, and share knowledge, but cultural and linguistic changes and the sheer volume of archives can make interpreting historical text challenging even for experts. Researchers at the University of Sheffield, Beihang University, and the Open University in the U.K. recently attempted to tackle this problem using AI and machine learning techniques. They say their approach, which can summarize historical documents written in German and Chinese, provides a strong baseline for future studies.

From the Capital invasion… Need a way to handle reports of ‘crimes’ the viewer misinterprets.

https://www.bespacific.com/digital-age-samaritans/

Digital Age Samaritans

Kaufman, Zachary D., Digital Age Samaritans (December 1, 2020). Boston College Law Review, Vol. 62, No. 4, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3741017

“Modern technology enables people to view, document, and share evidence of crimes contemporaneously or soon after commission. Electronic transmission of this material — including through social media and mobile devices — raises legal, moral, and practical questions about spectators’ responsibilities. In the digital age, will these actors be bystanders or upstanders? What role can and should the law play in shaping their behavior? This Article argues that certain witnesses who are not physically present at the scene of a crime should be held criminally accountable for failing to report specified violent offenses. Focusing on rape, police brutality, and other misconduct, this Article demonstrates that recent technological innovations create new opportunities and challenges to pursue justice and accountability. Such culpability centers on “Bad Samaritan laws”: statutes that impose a legal duty to assist others in peril through intervening directly (also known as “the duty to rescue”) or notifying authorities (also known as “the duty to report”). However, many of these antiquated laws arguably apply only to witnesses who are physically present, which limits their potential effectiveness today. Not all virtual witnesses should be subject to liability. To consider which categories of actors may warrant criminal punishment, this Article introduces a novel typology of bystanders and upstanders in the digital age. This typology draws on an original case study of the first known sexual crime livestreamed in the United States by a third party, which more than 700 people viewed. Harnessing insights from that case study and other episodes, the Article recommends that legislators should modernize, refine, and proliferate Bad Samaritan laws and that law enforcement should enforce these statutes or leverage them to obtain witness testimony. To that end, the Article proposes a model duty-to-report statute that includes features such as applicability to virtual presence and reasoned exemptions for noncompliance.”

Get a job!

https://www.makeuseof.com/linkedin-mistakes-harm-job-search/

7 LinkedIn Mistakes That May Harm Your Job Search