Guide To Privacy Resources 2015

Marcus P. Zillman’s guide is a comprehensive listing of privacy resources currently available on the Internet that impact your email, smartphones, websites, hard drives, files and data. Sources include associations, indexes, search engines as well as individual websites and organizations that provide the latest technology and information to raise awareness of privacy and security as you interact with others using the internet.

Subjects: Internet Resources - Web Links, Privacy

NY bar on ethics of cloud computing again

Nicole Black lauds the the leading edge role taken by the New York State Bar in determining issues related to lawyer use of cloud computing and client confidential data. In two different opinions handed down in the latter half of this year, the New York Bar committee reaffirmed the applicability of the longstanding duty of due diligence when assessing the security of third party service providers, explaining that a lawyer must assess whether the technology offers reasonable protections against disclosure and must also take reasonable precautions when using technology.

Subjects: Legal Ethics

Criminal, privacy implications of drones

Nicole Black discusses a recent NJ case that raises significant questions about the future of privacy and the use of drones for surveillance purposes by both private individuals and governmental entities. Cases such as this one involving the discharge of a weapon to destroy a privately owned drone used to surveil a neighbor’s property will impact interpretations of privacy laws in New Jersey, New York and around the country as well.

Subjects: Courts & Technology

Turning Challenges into Opportunities: New Directions for Legal Information Professionals

Attorney, journalist, author, legal tech expert, speaker and blogger Robert Ambrogi made a presentation recently at the fall meeting of the Law Librarians of New England and the Association of Boston Law Librarians. He addressed the pivotal ways in which law librarians remain critical contributors to the work product of law firms, professors and researchers in the academic arena, and change agents within the overall professional communities whose work places are increasingly dominated by Big Data, business intelligence and complex analytical tools.

Subjects: Law Librarians, Law Library Management, Legal Research Training, Librarian Resources, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing

Looking back, leaping forward, leveraging crisis, and freeing the law: A lawyer story

Thomas R. Bruce, Director of the Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute discusses how Google Scholar’s caselaw collection is a victory for open access to legal information and the democratization of law. He strongly acknowledges the fifth anniversary of this open­ access legal web site, but goes further to focus on the importance of this benchmark to the expanding value of freely accessible legal information combined with technically advanced search features available to diverse user communities outside the scope of the legal profession, for free. From caselaw to the rapidly expanding regulatory arena, fed by rules created by over 400 federal agencies that have enormous and multifaceted impact on our lives, the potential for search, discovery, education, empowerment and citizen engagement remains under development. Thank you Tom and all the experts at LII for blazing, maintaining and pioneering the next wave of critical paths to enable access to free legal research.

Subjects: Internet Resources - Web Links, Internet Trends, Legal Education, Legal Profession, Legal Research Training, Legal Technology, Library Software & Technology, Open Source

Adobes laxness with e-book data shows the need for a library-controlled ecosystem for library e-books

David Rothman highlights the recent revelation of an Adobe e-book reader data collection privacy issue, and suggests this security vulnerability offers a key opportunity for libraries to collaborate with other organizations to diminish data breaches, increase reader privacy, and empower libraries as stakeholders in a new relationship with vendors and customers.

Subjects: E-Books, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Library Software & Technology, Privacy

The top six library issues – from the Amazon threat to the need for a national digital library endowment

Long time public library advocate David Rothman shares what he identifies as the Six Big Issues for libraries, and a related discussion about each. They are: 1. Whether public libraries will even exist half a century from now; 2. The urgent need for a national digital library endowment to help fund two separate but intertwined systems, one public and one academic; 3. America’s changing demographics. Can public libraries respond when both their hiring practices and book collections lag so badly in this respect?; 4. Copyright threats and opportunities; 5. Threats to patron confidentiality from governments, marketers and others; 6. Censorship and onerous porn-filter requirements.

Subjects: Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Mobile Technology

Clients and Suicide: The Lawyer’s Dilemma

Ken Strutin’s article discusses an increasingly visible issue, suicide, here in the specific context of criminal law. He reviews how the stress of prosecution or litigation, whether it means risking a prison term, unemployment, bankruptcy, eviction, broken family relations, isolation, or other serious consequences can create or exacerbate a vulnerable and dangerous state of mind in a client. Client suicidal thoughts, attempts or actions expose the intimacies of human autonomy and test the limits of the attorney-client relationship. They cross a range of legal, moral and medical contexts: professional responsibility, client confidentiality, effective assistance of counsel, legal malpractice, criminal liability, and end of life issues. So it is that attorneys confronted with signs of suicidal intentions in their clients need to be conscious of their legal and ethical responsibilities. Strutin’s article is a significant guide for researchers, as it collects notable materials on this complex and sensitive topic, including ethics opinions, law reviews, bibliographies and other resources.

Subjects: Criminal Law