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Archive for November, 2011

Twitter Weekly Updates for EUdiscovery

November 25th, 2011 by Monique Altheim
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . Online Privacy Closed

How To Build Your Own Mobile App in Three Easy Steps: A Thanksgiving Primer

November 22nd, 2011 by Monique Altheim

 

 

Which professional has not entertained the wish to stay informed and in the loop, without having to spend hours of valuable time scouring the Internet for relevant information on a daily basis?

The daily load of professional newsletters, email subscriptions, RSS feeds, real time Twitter feeds, Facebook news streams, and now Google plus feeds, has become so heavy, that many have expressed the desire to go on an information diet.

I too have suffered from information overload, and in searching for a solution, I stumbled upon a very simple answer: I developed my personal mobile, information management tool in the form of an iPhone/iPad mobile app, which I use on my iPhone.

The “AltheimLaw” app is custom made for my needs and delivers real-time news from a variety of hand-picked sources, including social media sites, video and slide presentation sites, as well as more traditional RSS feeds of news aggregator blogs.

This particular app can, of course, also be installed by anyone who shares my interest in the very specific topics of e-discovery, data protection, privacy, social media, tech and information governance. I also created an Android version for those who use that platform under the name “Monique Altheim Esq.”.

 

But if you wish to create your own, custom made app to suit your own specific needs, and if you would like to publish it to any of  the IPhone/iPad, or Android platforms, you can do so, without knowing a word of code.

 

The entire process takes just three steps:

 

  1. Register as a “developer”
  2. Build your app
  3. Publish your app

 

 

Here’s a breakdown of the three steps for two popular mobile platforms: The iPhone/iPad, and the Android .

 

  1. Register as a developer:

 

The first step is to register as a “developer”. This will grant you permission to submit your app to the relevant store.

 

Requirements for iPhone/iPad:

 

Requirements for Android:

 

  2. Build your app:

 

Building an app is very easy, even if one doesn’t know a word of code, thanks to websites like www.appmakr.com

Just click on the “get started building your … version” on appmkr’s home page. You will see three icons, respectively for Apple, Android and Windows. Just click on the one you need.

You  may enter a keyword to start, so that Appmakr can find related icons and RSS feeds for your app, but you can disregard its suggestions and skip this step. It is better to use your own icons and RSS feeds.

The website basically gives you a template to work with, which it then translates into code.

Appmakr has a YouTube site where you can watch 13 instructional videos on how to buid an iPhone /iPad app, guiding you step by step through the creation of your app: http://www.youtube.com/user/AppMakr#p/u

You can test-publish your app to your iPhone to check out whether you like the end product, before you publish it to the App Store.

 

Once you have finished building your app, you will be able to download the file on your computer.

 

TIP 1: You will need some basic knowledge of Photoshop or other similar software to adapt your screenshots to the different size requirements for the iPhone and iPad.

The iPhone/iPad and Android have each different image size and file type requirements for the icons and screen shots. For example, the iPhone icon must be 512×512 pixels in .png format.

 

TIP 2:  Safari cannot download the appmakr files. I used Firefox instead.

 

If you wish to make the app available for devices using Android, you can transfer the app into the Android (as well as Windows) format by clicking on the appropriate icon underneath your finished iPhone app link.

 

 

  3. Publish your app

 

iPhone/iPad

 

To publish your app, go to https://itunesconnect.apple.com and click on “Manage Your Applications”. Then click on “Add New App” in the upper left hand corner and follow the instructions.

You should download the “application downloader” software (the link should be on the iTunesConnect site), install it, and then download your app in that program.

When you go back to your iTunesConnect account, you will see that the status of your app is “Waiting for Review”. In the next stage your app will be ”In Review”, until, hopefully, the status will read “Ready for Sale”, at which point your app should be searchable and ready for installation in the App Store.

The entire process takes between one or two weeks.

 

Android

 

To publish your Android version, go to https://market.android.com/publish/Home

Follow the instructions to upload your app file. It is as easy as uploading a YouTube file. Within an hour your app will be for sale and downloadable on the Android market.

 

As between the iPhone/oPad and the Android platforms, the clear winner is Android: It has a much lower registration fee and the publishing of the app is a breeze.

Either way, when you think of the many hours you will save by cutting out most of the noise online through the use your app, it is worth the registration fee and the afternoon you might spend creating it.

While there are other sites that will help you build your own app, Appmakr is the only one that offers it at no fee.

 

It is also important to update your app regularly, to keep it compatible with changes on the platform. When Apple updated its IOS to IOS5, I had to rebuild my iPhone/iPad App from scratch.

 

Since my law firm focuses on ediscovery, privacy and data protection, social media and information governance, these are the topics that are covered in my app.

If you want to keep informed on these topics, you can download the “AltheimLaw” app for iPhone/iPad here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monique-altheim-esq/id454018900?ls=1&mt=8 and the “Monique Altheim Esq” app for Android here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.appmakr.app296991

 

Once you install such an app on your mobile device, the latest real-time news that is relevant to you is always available at the click of a finger, during your commute or while waiting online at the post office or the supermarket, during a quick lunch break, before falling asleep or upon waking up in the morning.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . EDiscovery,European Union Data Protection,Mobile Apps,Mobile Privacy,Online Privacy,Social Media Closed

Twitter Weekly Updates for EUdiscovery

November 18th, 2011 by Monique Altheim
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . Online Privacy Closed

Twitter Weekly Updates for EUdiscovery

November 11th, 2011 by Monique Altheim
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . Online Privacy Closed

The Thief, The Programmer,The Hacker and The Data Protection Authority: How ILITA Cracked The Case

November 5th, 2011 by Monique Altheim

 

At the 33rd International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners, (CDPP), held in Mexico City on November 2 and 3, Yoram Hacohen, Head of Israeli Law, Information and Technology Authority (ILITA) and Ariel Shoham, Deputy Head of the Enforcement Department of ILITA, held a private briefing, where they explained how they cracked the biggest privacy breach case that ever occurred in Israel.

Just a week earlier,on Monday, October 24, ILITA (The Istraeli Law, Information and Technology Authority in the Israeli Ministry of Justice), Israel’s Data Protection Authority, had made the following announcement on its website::

“ILITA (The Israeli Law, Information and Technology Authority in the Israeli Ministry of Justice), Israel’s Data Protection Authority, has cracked the case involving the theft of Israel’s Population Registry, the development of bespoke search and navigation software, and their dissemination online.

 ILITA’s investigation revealed that in 2006, an individual outsourcing service provider to the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services downloaded and stored at his home a complete electronic copy of Israel’s Population Registry, which contains numerous data fields such as full name, identification number, address, date of birth, date of death, date of immigration to Israel, family ties etc. for more than 9 million Israeli citizens, including minors and the deceased.

The suspect disseminated to a third party a copy of the database, which subsequently reached a software developer who developed a program called “Agron 2006” to enable users to run complex searches and queries on the data, including navigating among family ties of the entire Israeli population. The “Agron” software was then cracked and eventually uploaded by a hacker to online peer to peer networks and disseminated worldwide. The hacker went further to create a website promoting the download and use of “Agron”, while implementing sophisticated means, such as proxy servers and purging of traces on his computer, to conceal his identity and try to evade Israeli jurisdiction .”

In this video, filmed by this author during the briefing at the CDPP Conference ,Yoram Hacohen, Head of ILITA and Ariel Shoham, Deputy Head of the Enforcement Department of ILITA, explain how they cracked the biggest ever Israeli privacy breach case.

They started by mapping the entire information infrastructure of the Ministry of Interior, where the breach had occurred, to understand the information flow. ILITA’s forensic lab then retrieved sixty five terabytes of information from diverse sources, most of which were obtained with court orders. Over 135,000 phone calls, 111 external hard drives, 3,232 CD’s, 25 desktops, 13 laptops, 15 USB drives, 45 internal HDs and 25 mobile phones were analyzed.

Watch this fascinating briefing to find out how the investigation led to the unmasking and arrest of six suspects and how one fatal “mistake” by the hacker who published the registry online led to his discovery.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , . Conferences,Data Breaches Closed

Privacy and Data Protection Week in Mexico City

November 5th, 2011 by Monique Altheim


 

This past week was “Privacy Week” in Mexico City, where three seperate conferences were held back-to-back.

The Public Voice  conference, chaired by Lillie Coney of EPIC, had as its theme: “Privacy is Freedom”

One of the highlights was a discussion between David Benasar, Senior Legal Counsel Aticle 19 and Marc Rotenberg, President of EPIC, titled: Frame the Issues Related to Freedom of Expression. Here are some of the ideas that were expressed:

About the Right to Freedom of Expression claimed by business and Right to Privacy:

Right to Privacy is essentially a pre-requisite for Freedom of Expression: the right of anonymity, for example, is the right to withhold our identity so we can express our views. Think for example the Arab spring or the protests in London and Vancouver. On the other hand, to call the actions of businesses to do away with our privacy for the purpose of conducting business “a right to freedom of expression” is like putting a Halloween costume on something and calling it “the Right to Freedom of Expression.” (In other words, it is a travesty.)

About the Right to Freedom of Expression claimed by journalists and Right of Privacy:

There is in media law a tension between freedom of expression and privacy rights of public officials and private individuals. It is important to be able to talk publicly and critically, particularly about public officials. But on the other hand, newspapers which publish gossip in order to sell (like in the recent UK phone hacking scandals) have a less defensible case for breaching people’s privacy. Yes, the news may be “news”, but it is meaningless news. This should not be defendable as a “freedom of expression” excuse to breach privacy.

Another very interesting panel was “Cultures and Privacy around the World“, moderated by Alberto Cerda, ONG Derechos Digitales.

This panel considered whether privacy and data protection are culture dependent. From left to right: Jacob Kohnstamm, Chair Article 29 Working Party (EU), Moez Chakchouk, CEO, Tunisian Internet Agency (TUN), David Vladeck, FTC (USA), Alberto Cerda, moderator, Lara Ballard, Department of State (USA), Zhou Hanhua (CHN).
(Note: this video is edited; the moderator’s recap comments have been edited for lack of space.)

Interesting note: At around 11:00, David Vladeck declares that clicking through an opt-in consent without even reading the dozen or so pages of “gobbledygook” or “word barf”, (as most of us do), is not a meaningful “consent”.

 

The OECD Conference, held on November 1, had as its theme: “Current Developments in Privacy Frameworks: Towards Global Interoperability”

The international character of personal data flows have accentuated the cross-border dimension of privacy issues and the corresponding need for a truly global dialogue.

As the OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurriá noted in a videotaped message:

“We describe our activities on social networks. We disclose our interests through our Internet browsing habits and online purchases with credit cards. We are located in time and space through the mobile devices we use. Detailed digital profiles of each of us can be assembled, and they can affect our opportunities positively or negatively.

Secondly, today’s data flows are continuous and global. The hype around terms like “cloud computing” and “big data” remind us that we are facing dramatic transformations in the delivery of online services. These shifts challenge the governance mechanisms we created in the pre-Internet era.”

Three of the primary frameworks with an international dimension (OECD, European Union, and Council of Europe) are as a consequence currently under review, and a fourth (APEC) is developing new cross-border implementation arrangements.

The Terms of Reference of the review of the OECD Privacy Guidelines were released on November 1.

One of its primary objectives is to ensure the global interoperability of privacy frameworks. Although each national culture has its own vision and approach to privacy,  a level global playing-field is needed. Widespread agreement on core privacy principles is not sufficient. We also need to strengthen mutual recognition and co-operation in their implementation.

Finally, The 33rd International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (ICDPPC 2011), was held on November 1 and 2 and was titled “PRIVACY: The Global Age.”

Diego Rivera Mural; picture by Monique Altheim

 

Peter Schaar, Federal Commissioner for Data Protection in Germany, explained the need for global standards well:

He said that the EU Data Protection framework was based on a model, in which data are collected by a data controller in a data base in the EU and then sent cross-border. Today, however, most data are collected directly from the end-user by data collectors outside of the EU, which creates enforcement issues for the EU authorities.

The buzz words at the conference were: accountability, privacy by design, privacy by re-design, education, information governance, the obsolescence of “consent” in the age of “big data”. The term “global interoperability by design” was coined.

One of the livelier discussions occurred during the panel titled “How does the growth of data, its mining and application challenge the way privacy enforcement agencies protect individuals”.

Peter Schaar, Federal Commissioner for Data Protection in Germany, pointed to the need to protect consumers from automatic and algorithmic decision making from big data. For example, should credit institutions be allowed to predict the likelihood of someone paying back a loan, based on who his/her Facebook friends are?

There were a few points of agreement during the conference: There was unanimous consensus that the user/consumer/ customer/citizen should have control over the use of his/her data. The discussions turned more on how to achieve that goal. Most data protection authorities seemed to agree that, in the age of big data, and re-purposed uses of big data, the consent-model of control has become obsolete, because it has become impossible to give a truly informed consent concerning the uses of one’s data: it is today impossible to predict what use our data will be put to. For example, when one uses Google’s search engine, does one consent that, if one searches for a certain chronic disease, one’s insurance premium might go up because of those search terms? Or that no employer will hire someone, based on the presumption of chronic disease as created by the use of that search term? This has led some to push for more regulation of the use of data, as opposed to regulation of the collection of data.

Another point of agreement was the need for data protection authorities to avail themselves more of IT and forensic expertise as wel as the need to educate the ignorant masses.

A very interesting term was coined by Jose Clastornic from the DPA of Uruguay: Global interoperability by design; Global privacy interoperability by design means the incorporation of international privacy standards into a national privacy legislation. This will guarantee that nation a boomig service industry, since it will become the go-to place because of its interoperable, international standards of privacy protection. This seems to be a trend in most Latin American countries, as well as China and other Asian countries.

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , . Conferences,Cross Border Data Flow,European Union Data Protection,Online Privacy,Privacy by Design Closed

Twitter Weekly Updates for EUdiscovery

November 4th, 2011 by Monique Altheim
Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Online Privacy Closed