Phone Monitoring

News that technological monitoring of mobile electronic devices could have a role to play in beating Covid-19 will raise a predictable outcry from the freedom warriors.  How dare the authorities use our data to determine who is infected, where we travel, and whom we may have met?  Never mind drones monitoring your walk in the Dales, your phone may soon start to bleep to warn you that you are too close to some oncoming ramblers.  It all sounds very big brother but, in the context of other extraordinary measures, it seems a very small privacy price to pay if we are to get back to work as soon as possible.

Although there could be some regulatory oversight over how your phone data was processed and used, it could be useful to remind ourselves that criminals in cyberspace are under no such inhibitions.  Indeed, as our use of the internet explodes because of the recent physical confinement, there will be rich pickings for people with bad intentions.  Now I stress that I am not a cyber expert - everything that follows is my opinion.

One of the easiest ways to hack your mobile phone is to set a trap on a public Wi-Fi network.  A resourceful rogue could set up a “free” Wi-Fi hotspot that appears just like something that might be offered by a hotel or supermarket.  Except it is not what it appears and clicking on the link to sign in could open your phone to all sorts of trouble.  Of course the password you used to log on was unique wasn’t it so there is no possibility of a thief using the same password to open another of your sites?  And its no good saying that I never do anything of security significance, like banking, on an open Wi-Fi network because once they are in your phone they can find pretty much everything.  Even if the hotspot itself is not fake, there is no guarantee that bad people could intercept your activity.  I am very grateful for the timely reminder from Jennifer Arcuri, writing in Standpoint, who says, “with free Wi-Fi we have no idea who else is on that network or what they are doing with the information we exchange over it.  We do not even know if the owner of the free Wi-Fi is really who we think it is.”

It is very tempting, if your phone contract places a limit on the ration of mobile data each month, to use so called free Wi-Fi networks but we should be very careful.  I looked at my phone this morning and found that, historically, it had remembered 149 wi fi sites that I had previously used (phones have long memories).  Most of these were legitimate like LNER or Cross Country but dozens could have been anything.  So and so’s café free Wi-Fi, in retrospect, looks potentially suspicious.  So, I told my phone to “forget” most of the site apart from my home wif and a couple about which I could be certain.  I ticked the box which prevents my phone from logging in automatically to any Wi-Fi it might encounter in future.

So after half an hours housekeeping this morning I have formed a new security resolution and to be very careful where I log in in future and make life as hard as possible for cyber criminals.  Meantime, big brother is welcome to my movement data if it helps the current fight.

Walking Disaster

We are fortunate to live in a rural area and are able to enjoy a variety of pleasant walks, starting and finishing at the house, without encountering too many others similarly engaged.  Keeping one’s distance, the recommended, “2 metres (6ft) away from other people,” is generally easy but there have been a few occasions where infringements could have occurred.  On narrow or converging tracks, without care, it could be possible to get too close to fellow walkers and contravene Government advice. 

I don’t suppose this problem would occur in Germany where there would a rule for right of way which everyone would obey, naturlich.  When we first arrived in Germany on posting to Allied Air Forces Central Europe, we needed to pass the “tick test” on how to drive on German roads before a British Forces Germany licence plate could be issued and we were let loose on the autobahns and, more importantly, draw petrol coupons.  One of novelties of the German equivalent of the Highway Code were the right of way rules, right before left, and other priority rules.  Imagine a 4-way unsigned junction which you have just joined in your right-hand drive car to find the other three entries occupied by, respectively, a lorry, a motorcycle and a horse drawn cart, all arriving simultaneously.  Who has right of way and who moves first?  Amazingly, there was a rule that covered just such an eventuality so no one should be in any doubt and someone would be to blame if there was a mishap.  I expect “volkswanderung” are banned during the present emergency but it is easy to imagine how an ordered society could adapt the priority rules of the road to ensure that casual walkers did not infringe respective safe spaces.  Such certainty would certainly deal with the hesitancy I have encountered whilst taking my daily exercise recently.  Silly impasses have been created with both parties stopping and waving the other through a narrowing path or people approaching have veered both left and right, uncertain as to which way the confliction was turning.

I expect, now that we have left the EU, that there would be little appetite for importing any Continental laws to the UK statute but something must be done if safe space infringements are to be minimised.  Fortunately, the ICAO Rules Of The Air have some simple helpful suggestions which I have adapted to immediate use:

• When two walkers are approaching head-on (approximately) so there is a danger of infringement of safe space, both walkers shall alter heading to the right

•  When two walkers are converging, the walker that has the other on his or her right shall give way except:

• Walkers without sticks shall give way to walkers using walking aids
• Walkers under 71 years of age shall give way to walkers over 71
• Walkers with dogs shall always give way.

 I do hope that the Government will look favourably at my proposals and provide some overdue “certainty” to this potentially confusing situation?

Further Restrictions Announced

Mushroom Cottage has now been under lockdown for nearly 3 days and I want to congratulate everyone for abiding by the rules.  Unfortunately, people are doing too much gardening and are spoiling things for the rest of us.  At this rate, the garden will be pristine by Easter; the therapeutic benefits will diminish putting too great a strain on other household activities. It will be necessary to apply further restrictions so I can announce that with effect tomorrow gardening will be limited to 30 minutes per day on a single task only.