Back on November 11, 2005 my post entitled “How Secure Is Your Listserv Comment?” told about how a post on a private, qualified participant-only listserv became unwittingly public, and about all the resulting embarrassment, furor and related complicated ethical violation issues which were raised. This post presents two more examples of potential problems.
The first concerns a nasty exchange of emails between Boston lawyers William A. Korman and Dianna L. Abdala. Now nothing is startling about the possibility of a cross exchange of words between lawyers. But what makes this particularly interesting, even amusing, is that the exchange began as a private one between, respectively, employer and prospective employee. It ultimately wound up being read by literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of lawyers across the nation. And even appeared in newspaper accounts, such as this one from the Boston Globe.
I know neither of the lawyers, nor any significant number of attorneys who are members of the Boston Bar. I don’t even have a counterpart at the Boston Bar Association. Yet I received a forwarded copy of the entire email exchange between these two lawyers, including the email address and names and comments of all those in the “chain” which ultimately ended in my inbox.
The actual exchange between the original lawyers is both humorous and extremely sad. Neither has comported themselves well, although one is, in my opinion, an embarrassment to herself and all other young lawyers in terms of her role in this exchange.
We forget that our email exchanges, while we anticipate they may be private, can very easily become public. Keep that in mind when you “shoot from the hip” in an email. Never send off a snotty or angry missive without first letting it cool off in your “drafts” folder for later review. And before hitting send, ask yourself how you would feel if that email were read by hundreds or thousands of strangers or colleagues. Let your answer guide you to edit or delete, as appropriate.
I might also add that the young attorney, in turning down an offer of employment, appears to have forgotten not only the Code of Civility, but also common business sense and decent manners. I suspect her actions, and words, will be haunting her for many years to come.
The second example exposes a risk in the use of some of the more popular Desktop Search Engines. To understand what these relatively new tools are and what they can do for you, I invite you to read my article “Desktop Search Engines: An Exciting New Tool”.
One of the DSE tools is available from Google. They recently announced a new “feature” of their software that greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy. If a consumer chooses to use it, the new “Search Across Computers” feature will store copies of the user’s Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google’s own servers, to enable searching from any one of the user’s computers. Electronic Frontier Foundation urges consumers to avoid using this software in a post on their web site. They state: EFF urges consumers not to use this feature, because it will make their personal data more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government and possibly private litigants, while providing a convenient one-stop-shop for hackers who’ve obtained a user’s Google password.
My colleague, Nerino J. Petro, Jr., who is Practice Management Advisor for the State Bar of Wisconsin points out that Google and other
major search engines store ALL searches you conduct. So in addition to
the problems raised with the new Google tool, there are other implications. Nerino gives an example of the possible implications arising from a divorce where one spouse subpoenas Google for all searches the other spouse ran to see if they were browsing porn sites, which information could be used to deny or change custody. You can read more about it on his blog.
What makes this somewhat ironic is that Google knows about and acknowledges the risks, according to this CNet News article. But to date their stance is that it isn’t “their problem” but rather that of the enterprise which uses their software. HUH?
I’ve been recommending to PA Bar Members and private clients that Copernic is a great DSE, and keeps everything safe and sound on the user’s computer. My colleague Jim Calloway at the Oklahoma Bar Association, also likes X1. After doing a trial of both, I decided I liked Copernic better. But that was a personal decision based on my comfort with the interface. Both are good products, and without the attendant security risks.
This isn’t the last you will be hearing of this issue. Exposure and risk come in all forms. For yet another example, take a look at my recent post on Metadata. Bottom line? You need to keep up on the latest developments in order to understand the issues, and avoid the risks.
==========
To return to the main page of the blog, click here. To return to the blog Index, click here.
[...] I don’t think that law firms can sit back and wait for the smoke to clear on these issues. I have long been a proponent of many safety precautions to protect sensitive data at law firms. See, for example, my 1/30/06 post entitled Secure Critical Information Residing on Desktops and Laptops and my 2/25/06 post post entitled When Private Becomes Public — Unwittingly. [...]