Encryption is all the rage, again. Politicians and government officials apparently have no problem with using fear mongering to conjure up support for backdoors to encrypted devices and data. Privacy advocates keep doing the same, basically, warning that providing big brother with backdoor access to encrypted data is like leaving the cookie jar in your wide-open kitchen window, on Sesame Street.

(The original post included a link to my complete post on this topic on LinkedIn, but those articles no longer exist.)

Privacy policies & practices are key, but it goes both ways my friends.  

YOU must develop & follow them, as well as the businesses, apps, sites, software, products, and services you use.

Have I gone mad about privacy?No, it's always been a concern of mine, from many perspectives.  It is also the topic of discussion for my audio podcast's January episodes. So there's that.

Surveillance Capitalism. Cambridge Analytica. Data Rights. Human Rights. Privacy Policies & Practices. CCPA.

If you're interested in any of these topics, maybe you can help me learn a few things?  Check out my Patreon posts and our January podcast episodes for my two cents.

Truly wishing you & yours all the best in 2020. Happy New Year my friends!

The Supreme Court today is set to hear arguments surrounding a case involving so-called ’sexting’ on a company-owned pager, of which the decision they make could have broad implications for employee privacy rights in the workplace.

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Rep. Zoe Lofgren, whose district includes the heart of Silicon Valley, announces another attempt at a privacy bill that's certain to be opposed by law enforcement organizations.

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Just finished reading the CNET article "Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans' text messages". As someone who has analyzed mobile devices and call records for law enforcement for many years, I'm not surprised at all that law enforcement wants service providers to store more data. As a citizen of the United States, I'm a bit surprised the public seems to be sleeping on this one.

Make no mistake people, the issue under consideration here is whether or not you have the right to communicate via text message privately.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year my friends!  Just a quick note to pass along season's greetings and give you a heads up regarding upcoming topics for my podcast, Nerds & Non/Sense™ .

In our January, 2020 episodes we'll be discussing The Illusion of Privacy.  Cambridge Analytica, "The Great Hack" documentary on Netflix, the Best Selling book "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism"and chatting about how metadata about your daily activities is used to not only predict, but influence your behavior.  How you are the commodity, and most of you still don't even understand the extent to which you've facilitated this.

In our February, 2020 episodes we'll be discussing Work/Life Balance.  Mandatory professional therapy and mental health resources & evaluations for digital evidence practitioners, and how they should be mandated in ALL agency SOPs, IMHO.