The EU last week published a draft directive on network security that requires communications operators (including utilities, banks etc) to report threats or attacks on their operations to national security agencies. In the US, President Obama is about to issue an Executive Order on critical infrastructure security that will provide for notices of imminent threats to operators of such operations. (Drafts of the Order have been circulating for months.)

Any word on official Canadian attention to such matters?

Do you know of any legal barriers that would prevent especially state-based operators of information systems (whether ‘critical’ or not) from defending . . . [more]

We always assume that the digital transformation will be lead by the youth. Or at least Mitch does.

Kevin O’Keefe came across a recent study which indicates that older readers needed less brain activity when reading on a tablet than on paper or e-Readers. The authors used EEG devices to monitor (theta band) brain activity and tracked eye movement. In fact, the older readers, aged 66-77 years, were actually able to use the tablets better than younger participants.

The point here is that the readers’ subjective preference of print over tablet was irrelevant, for all age groups. Most of the . . . [more]

A private correspondent has suggested to me that call centres that record incoming calls ‘for quality assurance purposes’ often store the recordings offshore, including in the US. The correspondent wondered if there was any concern that the information in the calls might therefore be subject to investigation or copying by US law enforcement under the PATRIOT Act.

Both the Canadian and the Ontario Privacy Commissioners have commented on allegations of special risk of having personal information in the US because of that statute. Neither have supported the concerns. A recent summary of the discussion is found in the Ontario IPC’s . . . [more]

As you are no doubt aware, RIM Blackberry finally brought its new operating system and a new phone to market this week. The first phone, the Z10 does not have a keyboard – a first for Blackberry. 

So will this save Blackberry? My take on early reviews is that Blackberry fans will like the new phones, and they will probably result in fewer people trading for iPhones, Android phones or Windows phones when their Blackberry terms expire. But it probably won’t result in a mass of people giving up their iPhones, Android phones or Windows phones for a Blackberry.

The . . . [more]

Here’s a question raised on a US legal technology list that seems relevant to Canadian law too.

What’s the duty of care of mobile devices as pertains to patches/updates provided by the vendor and/or provider?

Example:

I bought an Android phone in June 2012, which received an over-the-air OS upgrade in late July to Android 4.0.4. This release was provided to me well after the version was released to the public. Also, since that time, 2 other versions of Android (4.1 and 4.2) have been made available. There are known security vulnerabilities in the 4.0.4 release.

Yet I’ve certainly not

. . . [more]

There is a fantastic article in the Attorney at Work Blog by Daniel Gold today titled Save Random Sparks of Genius. Part of the article discusses the art of capture:

Finding a way to capture information anytime and anywhere—and then do something with that information—is critical to our success. It allows us to snare random sparks of genius like a hunter gets his prey.

Slaw has featured posts on capture using technology tools like Evernote, and Storify. There are low tech methods for remembering those fantastic ideas; I have a friend who swears by the notepad on the bedside . . . [more]

Grantham, Carson and Jarvis LLP, located in downton New York City, was established in the 20th century and there have been Granthams in the role of managing partner since 1962. The founding partner Grantham attracted corporate clients in the financial services, entertainment, insurance, communications and manufacturing sectors. The firm served these clients well over the years and was rewarded with faithful loyalty. There were occasional troubling signs in the 1990s, though, that the clients found the cost of litigation prohibitive, especially the fees paid for document review. By 2005, some were talking about Alternate Fee Arrangements and Outside Counsel Guidelines, . . . [more]

Don Tapscott, author, speaker and advisor on new technologies and media, was interviewed by McKinsey Quarterly back in September 2012, and a video excerpt plus transcript of the interview was released last month. See: Making internal collaboration work: An interview with Don Tapscott. This interview has been raising questions around the web, and thought it would be useful to look at it here on SLAW.

A US appeals court has reversed an order banning a convicted sex offender from having a Facebook account. Would such an order be made and upheld in Canada? What limits might be possible, and how would they be enforced? For that matter, how could the order itself be enforced? It’s not hard to get a FB account in another name, though it may be contrary to the terms of service to do so.

Could a no-contact order be made for FB use, e.g. not to friend or comment on any FB page relating to or about a designated person?

Meanwhile, . . . [more]

Here's a quick tech tip I came across yesterday that might come in handy for some people. If you're using a modern browser (and why wouldn't you be?) you can turn it into a text editor by putting what follows into the location bar and then clicking in the window:

Yesterday, a news release by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) informed the public of its recent findings following an investigation into the WhatsApp, also known as WhatsApp messenger (the report of findings can be read here). For the OPC, this investigation is a first in that is was done in collaboration with the Dutch Data Protection Agency.

WhatsApp is a cross is a “cross-platform mobile messaging app”, as described on its website. The investigation looked into whether or not the application contravened certain Principles of the Personal Information and Electronic Documents Protection Act. . . . [more]

Last Wednesday, the UK Supreme Court split on the issue of whether legal advice privilege extended to legal advice provided by accountants. In other words, did the privilege attach because of the nature of the communication, rather than the status of the person communicating.

The Court split 5 to 2, holding that legal advice privilege remains the exclusive preserve of clients of the legal profession. It protects communications passing between a lawyer and his or her client, with the lawyer acting in a professional capacity in connection with the provision of legal advice.

The Prudential case involved the issue of . . . [more]