BOLO! Free Phone Applications are not always Free!

Recently in the news, people have been having fun with the phone app “FaceApp”. This app will age your photo to make you look older (I’ve seen many friends and family do this), look younger or just look better. The problem is when you grant access to the app developer, you may be giving more than you receive…

As a lawyer, you want to be careful of what information you share with third-parties. There was recent hysteria that the “FaceApp” allows the developer, a Russian-based company, access and keep all of your phone’s photos. Forbes later reported it was an internet storm-in-teacup moment set off by a twitter user trying to raise internet awareness.

This is also apparently an issue for lawyers who use a free Virtual Private Network (“VPN”) when working on public wifi networks (recall my earlier blog posting on VPNs). David Sparks of MacSparky discussed an article posted at Top10VPN. The page discusses how nearly 60% of the “free” VPNs are owned by Chinese companies and how many of the “free” VPNs have some questionable practices. Given the dubious nature of these ever so generous companies, I’d be hesitant to expose my clients’ data to these third parties.

No one wants a bar complaint over failing to protect client data.

Note: I trust David Sparks as a reliable source. He is a California attorney who has been blogging for over ten years at Mac Power Users. I would not typically rely on an unfamiliar, at least to me, website like Top10VPN. But given its referral source, i.e., David, I am comfortable posting this reference.

Note2: Yes, I recognize that my source, re VPN, is from a Mac user; but, the VPNs can be used by both Windows and Macs - they have problems universal to both operating systems. 😃