Technology Makes Confidentiality More Difficult

Rosanna Tussey from the officesupportnow.com website, posted a comment about virtual law clerks.  She correctly notes that confidentiality is very important when it comes to paralegals and law clerks.  This can be especially true with virtual law clerks and paralegals, not because they are less trustworthy than other law clerks and paralegals.  Confidentiality is of course more difficult any time technology is involved.  As we email our clients’ files to workers who are distributed remotely, all of the traditional issues concerning data access comes squarely into play.  For instance, what happens if someone gains access to the law clerks computer?  Of course, these issues have little to do with virtual workers and more to do with the technology we now all have available to us.  Any lawyer that’s got a laptop knows that there are much greater risks of disclosure than previously.  Email and List Serves has taught us again and again that private conversations can quickly become public if we are not careful.  Thank you, Rosanna, for reminding us all that we need a heightened sense of awareness when it comes to matters of confidentiality in the technology age.