Are we ready for
Constitution 2.0? (Someone had to say it.)
Randy Barnett writes:
The
Federalist Society’s journal Engage has an interesting
Symposium
on the National Security Agency’s Bulk Data Seizures and FISA
Surveillance Programs. The symposium includes my very brief
essay with Cato’s Jim Harper, Why
NSA’s Bulk Data Seizures Are Illegal and Unconstitutional. In
it we contend that:
Rather
than airy and untethered speculations about “reasonable
expectations,” the courts should return to the traditional—and
more readily administrable—property and contract rights focus of
Fourth Amendment protection reflected in the majority opinion in
Katz. Courts should examine how parallels to the walls of
the home and the phone booth in Katz conceal digital
information are employed by the people to preserve their privacy.
Read more on The
Volokh Conspiracy.
...and if you don't
have a phone, expect a complementary DHS cavity search at every
airport, train station, bus station or Federal building.
… A new phone
bought today can sense if you are walking or running, if you drove to
your destination in a car or hopped on a bike. Far better than most
pedometers, it can tell you how many steps you’ve taken and in
which direction you went. It knows how long you stayed out at the
bar last weekend and how you got home. And it’s getting more
accurate by the day.
You could sing into
each service individually, providing a basic set of identifying
information. Then I could buy each set and combine your data. OR
you can sign in to Google once, and use your Google sign in
everywhere you go. Then Google does the combining. What difference
does that make in the end?
Thomas Escritt reports:
Google’s
practice of combining personal data from its many different online
services violates Dutch data protection law, the country’s privacy
watchdog said on Thursday after a seven-month investigation.
The
Dutch Data Protection Authority, or DPA, asked Google to attend a
meeting to discuss its concerns, after which it would decide whether
to take any action against the cloud services, Internet search and
advertising giant, which could include fines.
Read more on Reuters.
[From
the article:
In March 2012, Google unilaterally imposed new terms of service on
users of all its cloud services, which include the YouTube video
streaming site, the GMail email service, and the ubiquitous Google
search engine.
… The report said it was "almost impossible" for a
Dutch Internet user not to interact with Google "be it via
Search, YouTube or Maps, or passively through third-party websites".
Apparently the
government health database contains more than a few dozen
applications for health insurance... I didn't know it was illegal to
be depressed in the US. Fortunately for me, I am always happy.
Valerie Hauch reports:
Ellen
Richardson went to Pearson airport on Monday full of joy about flying
to New York City and from there going on a 10-day Caribbean cruise
for which she’d paid about $6,000.
But
a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent with the Department of
Homeland Security killed that dream when he denied
her entry.
“I
was turned away, I was told, because I had a hospitalization in the
summer of 2012 for clinical depression,’’ said Richardson, who is
a paraplegic and set up her cruise in collaboration with a March of
Dimes group of about 12 others.
Read more on The
Toronto Star.
How did the U.S. get
her mental health history? Apart from the fact that any policy
denying entry to people with past history of suicidality may be
overly broad, discriminatory, and just plain foolish, HOW DID THEY
GET HER DETAILS?
Is everything
protected, even if public? No exceptions or exclusions? That's the
tough part, “Everybody gots Right!” is easy.
UN
General Assembly Third Committee Approves Text Titled ‘Right to
Privacy in the Digital Age’
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on November 28, 2013
“Through this
resolution, the General Assembly establishes, for the first time,
that human rights should prevail irrespective of the medium and
therefore need to be protected both offline and online,” Brazil’s
representative said, echoing the statement delivered by his President
during the opening of the sixty-eighth session. The draft, approved
without a vote, would have the General Assembly call upon Member
States to review their procedures, practices and legislation on the
surveillance of communications, their interception and collection of
personal data, including mass surveillance, with a view to upholding
the right to privacy by ensuring the full and effective
implementation of all relevant obligations under international human
rights law. Following the approval, some delegates stressed the need
for agreed international human rights mechanisms in relation to
ensuring privacy and freedom of expression. Some expressed regret
over the lack of a specific reference to such mechanisms in the
draft, while others applauded the consensus as a clear international
reaction to the national and extraterritorial electronic surveillance
activities conducted by the United States.”
[From
the text:
a recorded vote of 148
in favour to 4 against ( Canada, Israel, United Kingdom, United
States), with 27 abstentions
(Related)
Report
on the findings by EU Co-chairs of ad hoc EU-US Working Group on Data
Protection
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on November 28, 2013
“Under US law, a
number of legal bases allow large-scale collection and processing,
for foreign intelligence purposes, including counter-terrorism, of
personal data that has been transferred to the US or is processed by
US companies. The US has confirmed the existence and the main
elements of certain aspects of these programmes, under which data
collection and processing is done with a basis in US law that lays
down specific conditions and safeguards. Other elements remain
unclear, including the number of EU citizens affected by these
surveillance programmes and the geographical scope of surveillance
programmes under Section 702… Various layers of oversight by the
three branches of Government apply to activities on the base of
Section 215 and Section 702. There is judicial oversight for
activities that imply a capacity to compel information, including
FISC orders for the collection under Section 215 and annual
certifications that provide the basis for collection under Section
702. There is no judicial approval of individual selectors to query
the data collected under Section 215 or tasked for collection under
Section 702. The FISC operates ex parte and in camera. Its orders
and opinions are classified, unless they are declassified. There is
no judicial oversight of the collection of foreign intelligence
outside the US under Executive Order 12333, which are conducted under
the sole competence of the Executive Branch.”
ebooks cost too much
and are hard to resell or even donate. It is also difficult to
display leather bound ebooks on your shelves.
Young
adult readers ‘prefer printed to ebooks
by Sabrina
I. Pacifici on November 28, 2013
Liz
Bury – The Guardian: “Survey finds that 62% of 16 to
24-year-olds prefer traditional books over their digital equivalents
- Sixteen to 24-year-olds are known as the super-connected
generation, obsessed with snapping selfies
or downloading the latest mobile apps, so it comes as a surprise to
learn that 62% prefer print books to ebooks.
Asked about preferences for physical products versus digital
content, printed books jump out as the media most desired in material
form, ahead of movies (48%), newspapers and magazines (47%), CDs
(32%), and video games (31%). “It is surprising because we think
of 16-24s as being attached to their smartphones and digital devices,
so it does shout out,” said Luke Mitchell of agency Voxburner,
which researched questions about buying and using content with 1,420
young adults. The two big reasons for preferring print are value
for money and an emotional connection to physical books. On
questions of ebook pricing, 28% think that ebooks should be half
their current price, while just 8% say that ebook pricing is right.”
My students might like
this...
Annotate
& Link PDFs Side-By-Side with Easy Annotate for iPad
I have already reviewed
a couple of useful PDF applications, including Apple’s
Preview and iOS apps iAnnotate
and iBooks,
but there’s always room for other PDF apps that offer a different
approach to annotating and managing PDFs. The newest app in this
genre is Easy
Annotate ($5.99; $2.99 during launch offer).
For my students who
write games (strangely, not all are in techie majors)
4
Free Websites Where You Can Learn The Basics Of Game Development
… In the world of
programming, they say that once you learn one coding language, you
pretty much know them all. It’s a little more nuanced than that,
but the sentiment is more accurate than you think. The difficulties
of programming – especially with regard to games – are not the
actual coding, but learning the paradigm of how a game works and how
to use those languages to organize and translate your thoughts into
reality.
Therefore, when looking
for a good game development tutorial series, you want one that will
teach you the practices and mentality of good coding
because you can then transpose those practices in any language or
platform, whether it’s C++, C#, Python, Java, or whatever other
language you intend to use. Here are some of the most useful
tutorials I’ve found on my self-taught journey.
A way for my criminal
justice & homeland security students to locate employers?
– ever since
September 11th, various law enforcement agencies and
counter-terrorism forces have sprung up, in order to combat the
various threats against the United States. The Washington Post has
compiled a map where you can enter a zip code and be shown which
agencies – local, state, and federal – is in that area.
Something for teachers?
– is an app that
facilitates screen sharing between yourself and others. Just type in
the URL of a website that you want to show them, and send them the
unique link provided. Then they will see what you see, and you can
show them the various areas of your site. Or you can use it to help
someone navigate a site, or plan a vacation.
It's that time again.
While I'm not in the running, this is a great resource for finding
innovative users of blogging, wikis and Twitter.
The
Edublog Awards
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