Articles and Columns for September 2021

• 2021 Guide to Internet Privacy Resources and Tools – Technology has significantly changed our concept of online privacy as well as our ability to secure it. The are a wide spectrum of tools, services and strategies available to assist you in the effort to maintain a sliding scale of privacy in an increasingly porous, insecure online environment. Whether you are browsing the internet, using email or SMS, encrypting data on PCs or mobile phones, trying to choose the best VPN, or working to secure your online services from cybercrime, hacking or surveillance, Marcus Zillman has identified a wide range of sources for you to consider. The foundational issue regarding privacy is that you must be proactive, diligent and persistent in evaluating and using multiple applications for email, search, file transfer, and social media. There is no “one size fits all” solution, and your vigilance and willingness to remain flexible in applying effective solutions will be an ongoing process.
• How Can We Help To Free Legal Research From Algorithmic Bias? – Stephanie Farne, Legal Information Librarian and Lecturer in Law at Boston College Law School, raises increasingly important issues respective to the bias inherent in artificial intelligence powered search algorithms, both on the Internet and in commercial databases.
• The legal regulation revolution – Attorney, legal sector analyst and author of the book Law Is A Buyer’s Market: Building a Client-First Law Firm, Jordan Furlong’s long read offers insights into this unique time as North Americans venture briefly out of lockdown. Furlong states it seems like the right time to step back and consider the extraordinary shock-waved landscape of legal regulation change, and what it means for everyone. Furlong looks at four different dimensions in which law firm ethics models, legal services regulation, and lawyer licensing and competence standards are all beginning a process of transformation.
• 4 strategies for energy and climate change breakthroughs at the UN summits – Morgan Bazilian and Dolf Gielen both with the Colorado School of Mines, have identified four strategic priorities that would help provide the foundations for success in both the energy and climate change domains.
• Evidence shows that, yes, masks prevent COVID-19 – and surgical masks are the way to go – Laura (Layla) H. Kwong is an assistant professor of environmental health sciences. She too has wondered about the best masks to wear to protect against COVID, and earlier this year she led a study that examined the research about which materials are best.
• Limiting Human Rights during Pandemics – Cassandra Emmons, Cassandra Emmons a postdoctoral fellow with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs’ Harvard University, discusses how COVID-19 has proven that public health emergencies are not equally recognized in either international law or national constitutions; some international treaties permit “limiting” rights in the name of public health rather than requiring derogation, and nationally some governments authorize emergency measures in practice without ever doing so in name. These parallel processes and conceptual gaps create space for governments to restrict individuals’ rights with little to no international accountability during pandemics.
• Machines Learning the Rule of Law – EU Proposes the World’s first Artificial Intelligence Act – Sümeyye Elif Biber is a PhD Candidate in Law and Technology at the Scuola Sant’Anna in Pisa. In 21 April 2021, the European Commission (EC) proposed the world’s first Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). The proposal has received a warm welcome across the EU as well as from the US, as it includes substantial legal provisions on ethical standards. After its release, the media’s main focus laid on the proposal’s “Brussels Effect”, which refers to the EU’s global regulatory influence: EU laws exceed their “local” influence and become global standards. With the AIA, the EU has the potential to become the world’s “super-regulator” on AI. More than the Brussels Effect, however, the emphasis should lie on the EU’s intention to explicitly protect the rule of law against the “rule of technology”. Despite this expressed goal, the normative power of the regulation to ensure the protection of the rule of law seems inadequate and raises serious concerns from the perspective of fundamental rights protection. This shortcoming becomes most evident across three main aspects of the AIA, namely in the regulation’s definition of AI systems, the AI practices it prohibits, and the preeminence of a risk-based approach.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, September 25, 2021 – Four highlights from this week: Landlords Use Secret Algorithms to Screen Potential Tenants. Find Out What They’ve Said About You; Even the NSA Agrees: Targeted Ads Are Terrifying; Massive Troll Farms Revealed to Be Operating on Facebook; and Ninth Circuit Says Warrantless Search of Google Files Automatically Reported to Police.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, September 18, 2021 – Four highlights from this week: Apple’s Plan to Scan Your Phone Raises the Stakes on a Key Question: Can You Trust Big Tech?; ‘Breach of trust’: Police using QR check-in data to solve crimes; Agencies may want to establish a national strategy for contact-tracing apps; and Americans have little trust in online security: AP-NORC poll.
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, September 12, 2021 – Four highlights from this week: 8 Easy Ways to Stay Anonymous Online; Education Department Updates Rules and Criminal Penalties for Accessing Agency Data; ProtonMail Shares Activist’s IP Address With Authorities Despite Its “No Log” Claims; and As flood alerts lit up phones, did ‘warning fatigue’ set in?
• Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, September 4, 2021 – Four highlights from this week: Expired Driver’s Licenses Open Lane for Cybercriminals; Tips for Victims of Unemployment Benefit Fraud; Fraud Alert: Malicious QR Codes Now Used by Online Scammers; and FBI-CISA Advisory on Ransomware Awareness for Holidays and Weekends.

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