Thursday, March 08, 2012


Amazing what can be justified by the claim “It's to protect the children!”
ACLU-MN files lawsuit against Minnewaska Area Schools
March 7, 2012 by Dissent
If the allegations in this complaint are true, this is a truly egregious over-reach by a school district that simultaneously invaded a student’s privacy and punished her for protected speech. Here’s the press release from the ACLU of Minnesota:
St. Paul, Minn. – Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court against Minnewaska Area Schools and the Pope County Sheriff’s office for violating the constitutional rights of a minor student. R.S’s free speech and privacy rights were violated by the school district in two separate instances involving Facebook. (To protect the privacy of the minor defendant, she will be referred to as R.S.)
In early 2011 R.S. posted a comment, while at home, on her Facebook page about her dislike of a school staff member. The school learned about the comment, and R.S. received a detention and was forced to write an apology to the staff member. She was disciplined again when she cursed on her Facebook page, complaining that someone reported her to the school. This time she was given an in-school suspension and was prohibited from attending a school field trip. The ACLU-MN contends that these sanctions violate her First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
In a second incident R.S. was brought into a school administrator’s office where she was coerced to turn over (against her will) login information to her Facebook and email accounts because of allegations that she had online conversations about sex with another student off-campus. Present at the search was a local deputy along with two school officials. During this process, R.S. was called a liar and told she would be given detentions if she did not give the adults access to her accounts. R.S.’s mother was not informed about the search until after it happened. The Deputy and school officials did not have a warrant to search R.S.’s private accounts. The ACLU-MN alleges in their suit that this violated R.S.’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.
The lawsuit seeks damages, declaratory and injunctive relief for the violations of R.S.’s constitutional rights.
“The trauma that these incidents have put R.S. through is completely uncalled for: She was intimidated, frightened, humiliated and sobbing while school administrators were scouring her private communications,” stated cooperating attorney Wally Hilke. “These adults traumatized this minor without any regard for her rights.”
“Students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the school house gate,” stated Charles Samuelson, Executive Director for the ACLU-MN. “The Supreme Court ruled on that in the 1970s, yet schools like Minnewaska seem to have no regard for the standard.”
Cooperating attorneys working on the case are: Wallace Hilke and Bryan Freeman of Lindquist & Vennum PLLP and Professor Raleigh Hannah Levine, William Mitchell College of Law.
To coincide with the lawsuit the ACLU-MN produced a handout for students outlining their privacy rights when using social netoworking sites.


Amazing what can be justified by the claim “It will catch terrorists!” (This will definitely get you on the “Fly? No, Colonoscopy? Yes” list.)
TSA Pooh-Poohs Video Purporting to Defeat Airport Body Scanners
The government responded angrily Wednesday to a YouTube video allegedly showing a 27-year-old Florida man sneaking a metallic object through two different body scanner devices at American airports. [No doubt the Emperor did as well when it was pointed out that his 'new clothes' left something to be desired (if nothing to the imagination) Bob]
… “These machines are safe,” Lorie Dankers, a TSA spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview. [But do they work? Bob]


Not unexpected. Facebook has made some changes since the lawsuit began, but it isn't clear if that resolves everything...
Facebook Loses Privacy Case in German Court Over Email
March 7, 2012 by Dissent
Shayndi Rice and Friedrich Geiger report:
A German court ruled against Facebook Inc. Tuesday for the way it uses members’ email addresses to solicit new users, in an ongoing battle between the Menlo Park, Calif.-based social network and European privacy groups.
The Berlin regional court said on its website that some of Facebook’s terms of service are invalid, but didn’t provide specifics and couldn’t be reached for comment.
It also ruled Facebook can’t force users to grant the social network a comprehensive license to their content.
[From the article:
The court held that users remain the owners of intellectual-property rights of their Facebook posts, pictures and other content posted on the site,


For my Ethical Hackers. Here (in not too much detail) is something you should not do. (That's not a wink, I have something in my eye...)
Read E-Books On Multiple Devices
Contents


A case study for my Ethical Hackers...
Stakeout: how the FBI tracked and busted a Chicago Anon


For my students
Instapaper
Instapaper lets you easily save various web pages so you can get back on reading it later.
… What’s more, you can now read offline and even on the go.
Get started by creating a free account so you can start saving web pages that interest you. Everything is customizable based on your preference so you surely wouldn’t have any problem reading too small texts or too bright backgrounds – it’s all in your hands!
NOTE: Instapaper is optimized for the iPhone, since that’s what I (and most Instapaper users) have, but I’ll do my best to broaden compatibility whenever possible.


Think of the fun I could have by asking my students to teach parts of my class! (Think of the naps I could take instead of researching and writing my lectures)
Coursekit is a free to use web service for teachers and students. The site lets teachers manage any course they are teaching online. If you are the teacher, you can start by creating an account on the site. Next you fill in the details of your course such as the syllabus, calendars, resources, etc. You can invite students by providing them with an online course code that can be used by them to enroll.
You can also share grades of the course with students to keep them updated about their scores.
Similar tools: Udemy.


This has some potential for sending video to answer student questions. (Some email systems don't like large video attachments.)
Givit
Givit is the first service to make it easy to share video privately. With Givit families, friends and coworkers can share videos from any camera, Smartphone or camcorder.
In just a few clicks, you can upload a video, add recipients and a personal message, then click Send! Viewers can watch your videos and respond privately from any computer, Smartphone or tablet. Givit is free, safe and secure, and it’s the ideal way for friends and families to share life’s important moments.

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