Nine great industry news stories from this week you may have missed.
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Trial by Zoom: Ready or not, court proceedings are going virtual
How is the background? Is the lighting okay? What about the angles?
A recent itbusiness.ca article says asking these questions has become a reality for many lawyers who are participating in virtual proceedings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom has become a go-to platform for many in the family and criminal legal sectors. Click here to learn about the benefits and challenges being posed by the digital shift.
New COVID-19 contact tracing app to be tested in Ontario starting in July
CBC has reported that a new Bluetooth-based COVID-19 contact tracing app developed in Canada is set to be rolled our for testing in Ontario next month. The app, called COVID Alert, was built using open-source code by the Ontario Digital Service, in conjunction with a volunteer team from Ottawa-based Shopify. In addition, a separate volunteer team at Blackberry helped with a security audit of the technology. Read the full story here.
Dalhousie law school houses the first international restorative justice lab
Dalhousie University has established the Restorative Research, Innovation and Education Lab (RRIELab) — the first-ever international lab to concentrate on restorative justice. The lab was established to transform the justice system and to safeguard the health, safety and well-being of individuals and communities across Canada through a restorative approach. It also aims to deal with institutional abuses and failures, as well as advance the development of restorative cities worldwide. Learn all the details on Canadian Lawyer.
French court slaps down Google’s appeal against $57M GDPR fine
France’s top court for administrative law has dismissed Google’s appeal against a $57M fine issued by the data watchdog last year for not making it clear enough to Android users how it processes their personal information. The Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés' (CNIL) multi-million dollar fine against Google remains the largest to date against a tech giant under Europe’s flagship General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Visit Tech Crunch's website to read the full story.
The Impact of Data Breaches on Our Society
The International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that by the end of this year, a quarter of the world’s population will have been affected by a data breach. That's almost two billion people who may lose money, financial autonomy and security, and general peace of mind. A recent Security Boulevard article investigates the losses that come as a result of breaches and what the silver lining may be going forward.
Doctors, teachers and pilots do it, so why not lawyers?
"If you were to find yourself on a surgeon’s operating table, on a plane trying to land in high winds or back in the classroom learning your times tables, you would be in the hands of a professional whose ability had been independently checked at some point in the last five years."
A recent Legal Futures article written by Chris Nichols begs the question of why lawyers are not required to routinely check their skills or knowledge after they have been qualified. Competence, he argues, is a key ingredient to delivering meaningful access to justice. Learn why Nichols says it's the right time to lead an evidence-based discussion on ongoing competence, here.
Google launches new privacy features to let users auto-delete their data
In order to give users more control, Google has announced new privacy improvements and data retention practices across its products. According to Mobile Syrup, the tech giant stated that activity data will automatically and continuously be deleted after 18 months, rather than kept until deleted. Current users’ settings won’t be impacted, but Google will be issuing reminders about the feature.
Zoom losing to Teams in the video conference race to the top
Between February 17 and June 14, 2020, Microsoft Teams use grew 894 per cent, while Zoom's grew 677 per cent. Zoom, which has been under fire in recent months for security issues, was surpassed by Teams during the week of May 4. This week, Tech Republic took a deep dive into the competing video conferencing apps and shared the insights from a new Aternity report.
10 Wonderful Examples of Using AI for Good
From cancer screening to spotting fake news, artificial intelligence is doing a lot of good work. Despite its sometimes-negative connotation, a new Forbes article share just how AI tools are augmenting human efforts to come up with solutions to vexing problems. View the full list here.
