A few interesting technology-related risk and compliance stories of note.

I confess I’m personally waiting for the first report of Outside Counsel Guidelines that establish rules preventing any matter discussion within earshot of a smart device (including a phone). I suspect it’s only a matter of time, though my science-fiction forecasting sometimes leans a little dark.

But I’m not the only one thinking along these lines, as stories have surfaced of “accidental” monitoring by big tech (and just the general ethics and implications of the how these are designed and used). For lawyer specific analysis, see: “Lawyers’ Digital Assistants Raise Ethics, Privacy Concerns” —

• “Is my Amazon Echo spying on me? Recent years have witnessed the growth and proliferation of voice-activated virtual assistants like the Echo, Google Home and Apple Home Pod, which have picked up where Apple’s Siri left off: streaming music, scheduling appointments, sending texts, checking weather and preparing grocery lists, all without so much as the flip of a switch.”
• “Amazon’s Alexa, once activated by voice command, digitally records the owner’s instructions, which are then stored in the cloud until erased by future use. This has raised privacy issues, prompting at least one commentator to refer to digital assistants ‘as Trojan horses in the age of digital surveillance.'”
• “But there are ethical concerns for lawyers as well. The ethics rules require lawyers to preserve and maintain the confidentiality of client information, particularly in digital format… The risks associated with transmission of client confidential information electronically include disclosure through hacking or technological inadvertence. A lawyer’s duty of technological competence may include having the requisite technological knowledge to reduce the risk of disclosure of client information through hacking or errors in technology where the practice requires the use of technology to competently represent the client.”
• Attorneys who do use digital assistants may find it prudent to unplug or disable the microphones during client meetings or phone calls, and may seek to restrict their linkage to other sensitive databases. For example, attorneys might decide not to sync up their client databases with their digital assistants. The Amazon Alexa app has privacy functions which permit users to block the transmission of recorded messages to Amazon employees.”
• “One thing is for certain: Lawyers must continue to keep abreast of new developments in professional responsibility in addition to keeping up with evolving technology and the security risks that accompany new technology.”

On another technology note, a few readers noted this development, covered nicely by Karen Rubin: “Military prosecutor sent “bugged” e-mail to defense lawyers, says motion” —

• “But first, how does ‘web-bugging’ work? It involves placing a tiny image with a unique website address on an Internet server, and dropping a link to that image into the bugged e-mail. The image might be invisible or it might be disguised as a part of the document. It works by transmitting specified information to the sending party when the recipient opens the ‘bugged’ document.”
• “Three jurisdictions (Alaska, New York and, most recently, Illinois) have issued opinions pointing to the ethics issues that can arise when lawyers use such tracking devices surreptitiously to get a leg up on an opposing party.”
• “The latest web-bug development comes not in a staid ethics opinion, but in military proceedings in which a Navy lieutenant is charged with conduct unbecoming an officer, with connections to a high-profile war crimes court-martial involving a Navy SEAL and an Islamic State prisoner. The circumstances sound straight out of a thriller.”
• “As reported in the ABA Journal, earlier this month defense lawyers for Lt. Jacob Portier filed a motion accusing a military prosecutor of sending “bugged” e-mails to thirteen lawyers and paralegals, plus a reporter with the Navy Times. According to reporting by the Navy Times, Portier is accused of holding a reenlistment ceremony for a Navy SEAL next to the corpse of an Islamic State prisoner allegedly stabbed to death by the SEAL.”
• “The SEAL has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder in the stabbing death, which occurred in Iraq in 2017, and the military case has drawn much attention, including from President Donald Trump, said the Navy Times.”

I confess that if you’re reading this by email, and click “download images,” your client will load an image from my mailing list provider, who will generate an aggregate report telling me that folks out there are reading these. (This is recommended and encouraged, as that knowledge is what’s keeping me going here.)

Next, noting Karen’s apt “straight out of a thriller” characterization. See also: “Judge in war crimes case against Navy SEAL weighs dismissal motion” —

• “The judge in the court-martial of a Navy SEAL platoon leader accused of war crimes in Iraq is weighing defense motions to dismiss the charges or otherwise remove the lead prosecutor and possibly the judge himself from the case.”
• “The hearing comes 11 days before Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher is due to go on trial charged with killing a helpless, wounded Islamic State fighter in his custody and of shooting two unarmed civilians, a schoolgirl and an elderly man.”
• “The defense specifically has accused Navy lawyers of conducting illegal surveillance of defense attorneys and news media by way of electronic tracking software secretly embedded in emails sent to the defense.”
• “In court, prosecutors have said the email “auditing tools” they used were designed merely to detect the flow of emails without revealing their content, and were aimed at pinpointing the source of leaks from case files sealed by the judge.”
• “Timothy Parlatore, a civilian lawyer leading Gallagher’s defense, also said the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Office undermined fairness of the proceedings by issuing a statement last week saying the government was acting ‘as part of a lawful, authorized and legitimate investigation.'”
• “The case, being conducted at U.S. Naval Base San Diego, has attracted the attention of President Donald Trump… Trump said he was considering pardons for two or three American servicemen charged with war crimes, but might wait until they stood trial before deciding.”