“I vant to suck your DNA” Count
Dracula Jr.
The advantage of DNA beyond
identification is we can predict future crimes these so-called
citizens might commit...
ACLU
Calls on State Legislators to Reject Bill Expanding DNA Testing of
Arrestees
January 24, 2012 by Dissent
The American Civil Liberties Union of
Ohio will testify today before the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee
opposing Senate Bill 268. The legislation will expand the
government’s ability to take DNA samples from felony arrestees by
allowing the state retroactively to seize genetic information from
past arrestees and those charged with a felony but not arrested. In
2009, the Ohio General Assembly passed S. B. 77, which allowed the
state to obtain DNA samples from those arrested on felony charges.
“DNA is perhaps the most personal
information our bodies contain, and the government must not simply
take it without considering the privacy of Ohioans,” said ACLU of
Ohio Associate Director Gary Daniels. “Those who have been
arrested for a crime have not been found guilty in a court of law,
nor have they had any opportunity to defend themselves. This system
allows innocent people’s genetic information to become property of
the state without any due process.”
“Neither this legislation nor current
law provides meaningful opportunity for innocent Ohioans to remove
their DNA from state databases if they were wrongfully accused of a
crime,” added Daniels. “By expanding the power to collect DNA
even further, state legislators will open a Pandora’s box where law
enforcement may abuse their ability to arrest to perform an end-run
around due process protections.”
S. B. 268 would direct the DNA
information to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation to check against
past records and keep on file. News reports have indicated that BCI
and local law enforcement often have long backlogs on testing DNA
evidence such as rape kits. On December 5, 2011, Ohio Attorney
General Mike DeWine recommended that local law enforcement send rape
kits to BCI for testing, and pledged to add staff to accommodate the
increase. Recently, the Department of Justice and state officials in
Michigan and Illinois have warned legislators against adding
additional DNA collection categories in order to avoid creating
additional logjams.
“Unnecessarily collecting DNA will
clog law enforcement systems, violate Ohioans’ privacy, and
increase costs,” concluded Daniels. “State legislators should
focus on testing rape kits and other evidence that has sat on shelves
rather than adding more DNA to test that may lead to nothing.”
Source: ACLU
(Related)
By Dissent,
January 24, 2012
Dionne Cordell-Whitney reports:
Minnesota collects
DNA samples from newborn children, then illegally keeps the genetic
information and shares it with third parties without informed consent
of the parents, parents say in a class action.
Lead plaintiffs
Nathan and Katrina Anderson sued the state, the Minnesota Department
of Health, and its commissioner, in Hennepin County Court.
They claim that
state violated its own Genetic Privacy Act by collecting, storing and
disseminating their children’s genetic information without informed
consent.
Read more about the lawsuit on
Courthouse
News.
Another example of a school adopting
technology without explanation. (We're in charge and we know best?)
I suspect that if they had tried to get parents aboard this would
have been viewed as beneficial.
MO:
Parkway School District shelves fitness monitors
January 24, 2012 by Dissent
Cynthia Billhartz Gregorian reports:
The Parkway School
District is taking away activity monitors given to elementary pupils
for physical education classes due to a national
controversy over privacy issues.
The 75 Polar
Active devices, which are worn on the wrist and cost $90 each, were
distributed last year to third-, fourth- and fifth-grade pupils at
Henry, Ross and Shenandoah Valley elementary schools. The pupils
were using them to measure the quality and duration of their exertion
during PE classes then comparing those measurements to the U.S.
Surgeon General’s recommendations for activity.
Read more on STLtoday.com.
(Related) Because eventually, we'll
use the same technology on ourselves... Another article about what
they are calling “The Quantified Self”
Eventually, all Privacy Policies will
devolve to: “You ain't got none.”
Google
Streamlines Privacy Policy to Integrate its Products
On Tuesday, Google announced that it
would be streamlining the bulk of its products’ privacy policies
into a single document, effective March 1.
Under the banner “One
policy, one Google experience,” the company’s new Policies
site says that it is “getting rid of over 60 different privacy
policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot
shorter and easier to read.”
On the Official Google Blog, a post
by Alma Whitten, Google’s Director of Privacy, explains how
this new privacy policy will affect users: “Our new Privacy Policy
makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine
information you’ve provided from one service with information from
other services,” Whitten writes [emphasis mine]. “In
short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products,
which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”
I create the work. You put it on your
store shelf. You own my work. Is there a problem here?
An anonymous reader writes in with one
of many articles about the iBooks EULA, this time questioning whether
it is even enforceable. Quoting:
"The
iBooks Author EULA plainly tries
to create an exclusive license for Apple to be the sole distributor
of any worked created with it, but under the Copyright Act an
exclusive license is a 'transfer of copyright ownership,' and under
17 U.S.C. 204
such a transfer 'is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance, or
a note or memorandum of the transfer, is in writing and signed by the
owner of the rights conveyed.' When authors rebel and take their
work elsewhere, Apple has, at most, a claim for breach-of-EULA —
but their damages
are the failure to pay $0 for the program."
Does this give the third world a
competitive advantage?
Rising
Telecommuter Numbers Worldwide Form A Notable Trend
A
new poll of over 11,000 workers worldwide by Ipsos and Reuters
shows that telecommuting is an increasingly popular choice,
especially in non-Western countries. This will come as no surprise
to many, but the numbers are higher than some might have guessed.
Over 30 percent of workers in India, Mexico, and
Indonesia claimed to telecommute regularly, and one in ten overall
work from home every day.
… There is very little that can be
done in an office that must be done in an office, and
worldwide in developing markets the cost savings of that fact are
being welcomed with open arms.
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