The jailed lawyers warned that Alexa was hearing secret calls.
Shock
Hey Alexa, stop listening to my client's information.
While law firms are urging lawyers to work from home during the global epidemic, their employees' secret phone calls to clients are at risk of being heard by Amazon.com and Google.
Mishcon de Reya LLP, uk law firm has advised the famous Princess Diana on her divorce and also no corporate law, has issued advice to employees to mute or turn off listening devices such as Amazon Alexa or Google Voice Assistant when they talk about client matters at home, according to a partner in The company. He suggested that none of the devices were near their workspace at all.
The Mishcon warning covers any type of visual or audio device, such as Amazon and Google speakers. But video products like Ring, which is also owned by Amazon, and even children's screens and closed-circuit TVs, are also a concern, said Joe Hancock, a partner of Mishcon de Rea, who also heads the company's cybersecurity efforts.
"We may be a little paranoid, but we need a lot of confidence in these organizations and these devices," Hancock said. "We prefer not to take risks," he said.
He added that the company is concerned about devices that are at risk, and less so with brand products like Alexa, but more so for cheap devices knock off.
Like Wall Street, law firms face challenges in trying to enforce secure home-based arrangements for certain jobs. Important documents, including documents that may be privileged, should be secured. At the same time, some traders in the banking sector are required to operate in alternative locations where banks are on standby to recover from disasters rather than temporary workstations from home to maintain confidentiality.
Smart speakers, already famous for accidental activation, making unintended purchases or sending audio snippets to Amazon or Google, have become a new source of risk for companies. As of last year, the U.S. composite base of smart speakers had 76 million units and was growing, according to a report by consumer intelligence research partners.
Amazon and Google say their devices are designed to record and store audio only after discovering a word to wake them up. Companies say such cases are rare, but recent experiments by Northeastern University and Imperial College London have found that devices can inadvertently activate between 1.5 and 19 times a day.
Technology companies have been criticized for compromising users' privacy by getting teams of human auditors to listen to conversations without consent to improve their AI algorithms. Google has since said that users have to choose in to let the tech giant keep any audio recordings made by the device. Amazon now allows its users to set up automatic deletion of recordings, and unsubscribe from manual review.
The law firm's warning first appeared on the Instagram account "justthequant", where people share their information and work struggles from home.
While law firms are urging lawyers to work from home during the global epidemic, their employees' secret phone calls to clients are at risk of being heard by Amazon.com and Google.
Mishcon de Reya LLP, uk law firm has advised the famous Princess Diana on her divorce and also no corporate law, has issued advice to employees to mute or turn off listening devices such as Amazon Alexa or Google Voice Assistant when they talk about client matters at home, according to a partner in The company. He suggested that none of the devices were near their workspace at all.
The Mishcon warning covers any type of visual or audio device, such as Amazon and Google speakers. But video products like Ring, which is also owned by Amazon, and even children's screens and closed-circuit TVs, are also a concern, said Joe Hancock, a partner of Mishcon de Rea, who also heads the company's cybersecurity efforts.
"We may be a little paranoid, but we need a lot of confidence in these organizations and these devices," Hancock said. "We prefer not to take risks," he said.
He added that the company is concerned about devices that are at risk, and less so with brand products like Alexa, but more so for cheap devices knock off.
Like Wall Street, law firms face challenges in trying to enforce secure home-based arrangements for certain jobs. Important documents, including documents that may be privileged, should be secured. At the same time, some traders in the banking sector are required to operate in alternative locations where banks are on standby to recover from disasters rather than temporary workstations from home to maintain confidentiality.
Smart speakers, already famous for accidental activation, making unintended purchases or sending audio snippets to Amazon or Google, have become a new source of risk for companies. As of last year, the U.S. composite base of smart speakers had 76 million units and was growing, according to a report by consumer intelligence research partners.
Amazon and Google say their devices are designed to record and store audio only after discovering a word to wake them up. Companies say such cases are rare, but recent experiments by Northeastern University and Imperial College London have found that devices can inadvertently activate between 1.5 and 19 times a day.
Technology companies have been criticized for compromising users' privacy by getting teams of human auditors to listen to conversations without consent to improve their AI algorithms. Google has since said that users have to choose in to let the tech giant keep any audio recordings made by the device. Amazon now allows its users to set up automatic deletion of recordings, and unsubscribe from manual review.
The law firm's warning first appeared on the Instagram account "justthequant", where people share their information and work struggles from home.
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