On the periphery of control

The annual event returned to London last week and joined with partner cities around the world. It may not be an obvious warm-up to Fashion Week (although the delegates are universally fashion-forward), but it is a barometer of the state of the digital world and a window into what is yet to come. It was also a Corbyn-free zone.

Despite an occasional reference to privacy and abstract acknowledgements of intellectual property (the majority of which was in the context of unwanted complications), the law was mostly absent from the numerous presentations and discussions. But, with social media now fully incorporated into our lives, it remains on the periphery of control and order. That's not to say it should. There is a growing concern about how far social media can develop without proper regulation, and how far the digitisation of our lives can, and should, go.

Here are just a few of the things that lawyers could be getting excited about in the coming years:

• Move to visualisation: If you have logged onto Facebook or signed into Twitter in the past few months, you will have noticed the prominence of photos and videos on your timeline. A picture may paint a thousand words, but it is also quick, stimulating, and more readily remembered. Images carry with them a minefield of intellectual property rights ripe for abuse and misuse. For global brands, image hijacking is also a concern, along with copycat businesses and unwelcome associations.
• Rise and rise of data: The democratic nature of social media, together with a rising demand for information, means that more data is being collected than ever before. How that data is collated, processed, and stored invites opportunities for breach, from basic failures to comply with data protection legislation to leakage and hacking - a bonanza time for data protection specialists and litigators.
• Digital living: You may have heard about Apple's move to infiltrate every element of our lives, with new phones and iPads, music, and a TV service, but connectivity around the home is going much further. The Internet of Things could see the coffee pot bubbling when the smart watch alarm is triggered, and have an Uber car waiting for us before we know we want it. Taking away decision making means handing over yet more personal information to companies we know little about. A real fear is that our lives and homes will shut down if we momentarily forget the name of our first pet and can't access the system. Untangling liability for even simple claims could become increasingly complex as products speak to one another and human influence is diminished.
• The Google car: Will the driverless car be able to process the potential financial liability of an accident and act accordingly? Facial recognition linked with shared data and super-fast processing speeds will work together to determine the future productivity (and financial liability) of a potential victim. A split second, data-driven decision may turn Darwinian theory about survival of the fittest on its head and see those with the greatest earning potential spared.

Also on its way is Facebook's 'dislike' button, bringing with it the potential for unwelcome criticism to us all, including lawyers and law firms. One wonders what law firms will make of the new button on their Facebook pages.

Kevin Poulter, editor at large

@SJ_Weekly | editorial@solicitorsjournal.co.uk