The issue is not about an expectation of privacy. It's about an expectation of anonymity, which is reasonable. Ultimately, this information was gained by way of warrantless wiretapping, or a crawler with access to federal data, or some other mechanism unavailable to the general public.
Hold on there. Facebook is anonymous? I haven't seen the kids page, but who is to say he didn't have his name and city, maybe an e-mail address or two on there.
Go this group page I want to kill my teacher! and click on almost any members page where you can typically find their first and last name as well as their hometown. Why would it not be legitimate for law enforcement to scan all members pages for more specific threat language and investigate?
A first and last name, typically a photo and a hometown is likely more than enough to identify a subject -- throw face recognition and a database of school id photos and you are good to go. I don't see anything wrong with that.
...and I've seen numbers as high as 20% is some countries and even counties in the US.
Try to find a comparable, available position in your city. I'm not as in touch with how IT position availability is, but the scene is not very pretty out there in general.
Keep working while you look for a better situation and improve your resume in your current position.
There was a Seinfeld episode where Kramer went into the post office to stop sending him mail - got me thinking. Why do we have to receive all this crap in a box in our front yard? I pay my bills online or schedule checks from my bank each month. There are few items that I actually open up every month, most go straight into the trash. The items I do open I end up scanning into PDF anyway as invoices or paystubs.
I actually pay for a service like this: Earth Class Mail, there are few others like this too. They receive your mail and scan the envelope which you access online just like your e-mail, then you can pick it up (inconvenient) or scanned, forwarded or shredded/recycled. It's a bit expensive and I've only been doing it for a couple months but so far so good.
I have a real street address (no PO Box) which so far no one has balked at: the DMV, my insurance company, voter registration.
Of course, the reason I am doing this is so that I can live anywhere I want without having to change my address every time I move -- except for magazine subscription (which with the new iPad/eReader devices will hopefully not be needed anymore). I work remote and can take my phone number anywhere I go (skype, vonage, etc) and make or receive calls from my laptop.
I wouldn't mind contactless payment via RFID, as long as the chip in each item I bought is disbled as I check out and leave the store. ... and as long as they don't advertise it with people in a dancing shangrila.
They should have left out the "threat" part and emphasized the "disruptive behavior" and making the teacher "feel threatened".
I've been through several HR training sessions (like most of us) on Sexual Harassment, Discrimination, etc. It all boils down to "sensitivity training" and understanding that certain actions, comments, etc. can be construed in a way other than you intended.
Send the kid to sensitivity training for 6 months. If that doesn't bore him into removing his icon then he's got a real problem. I mean really, no school for 6 months as a punishment? Hah! Try some boring f*ck teaching you how to respect other peoples feelings for an hour a day.
Excellent post. I totally agree, and unlike our current leadership will have no problem acknowledging any errors I have made.
This actually brings another question to mind, should we take into account the current state of world affairs/domestic affairs in determining what is a reasonable expectation of our rights?
Do we have a rigid set of inalienable rights, or are they flexible, and ebb and flow with the situation we find ourselves in? Big question, something to think about. I personally think that being totally inflexible in anything is a detriment, there should be limits but as they say desperate times call for desperate measures. Not that we are desperate....yet:)
I'm hoping your reply was partially humorous. Sometimes you can't tell:)
That's another point entirely which could launch an entire philosophical debate on right and wrong, human rights, etc.
My main point was that, as far as I know, no one is being physically harmed due only to the data mining of telephone records. Granted people may eventually be inconvenienced, imprisoned and (with the current dopes in charge) tortured, but that (hopefully) will only be after much more investigation and information is gathered.
Unfortunately, I think that it is the people who *can* make this connection in their heads, and then blather on about it, are the ones who do a disservice to constitutional protections. Most logical people (in my estimation) do not make this connection and consider those who do 'kooky' thereby giving them a reason to ignore the issue completely.
Really? Equal? I just can't get there. Soviet Russia used these types of tools to hurt, incarcerate and kill innocent *people*.
I think the proper argument to my comment here is the "slippery slope". I fully agree that this is a serious matter that should be the subject of outrage. However, you won't win me over with comments that incarcerating and killing political dissidents is equal to data mining phone records.
The purpose of the public outcry is to let our elected officials know that they had better watch their step -- keeping their footing on that slippery slope. However, it is a *slope*, there are levels of injustice here...in my mind anyway.
Of a bigger concern to me is this: How long will the public outcry last on this issue? Does the duration and level of outrage grow as we move down the slippery slope? Are American citizens, in this day and age, at all capable of pursuing the drastic measure needed to curtail further injustices or are we just a bunch of reactionaries who don't really care?
I do agree that we need to 'nip it in the bud' for a variety of reasons. Just don't compare data mining which could at worst be compared to Senator McCarthys Communist hearings to what happened to people in the Eastern Bloc, I find it pretentious and utterly ignorable.
Maybe I just don't get it. In my mind I simply cannot equate tapping a phone line to incarcerating *people*. There is a huge step from listening to my phone sex calls to throwing me in jail. I'm not saying that there isn't a slippery slope here, or that we should be giving anyone a pass for this. I'm just saying there are gradiations of infringement.
The original parent said he grew up in the Eastern Bloc where this sort of tool was used to kill and imprison political dissidents. Isn't there a difference here?
Really? You mean political opponents and vocal critics being killed and imprisoned in eastern Europe during the cold war doesn't quite measure up to tapping a telephone line? I think you need to have your scales of justice recalibrated.
While part of my post was in jest, the fact of the matter is that NSA and DOD technology is typically a generation ahead of what is available to the public (if not more). Granted, quantum computing is probably not going on at the NSA, but they have some super smart people working for them who are ahead of the curve and can spend good chunks of change on technology that may not be 'viable' (read: worth it) to 99.9% of the earths population.
Slashdot Mirror
The issue is not about an expectation of privacy. It's about an expectation of anonymity, which is reasonable. Ultimately, this information was gained by way of warrantless wiretapping, or a crawler with access to federal data, or some other mechanism unavailable to the general public.
Hold on there. Facebook is anonymous? I haven't seen the kids page, but who is to say he didn't have his name and city, maybe an e-mail address or two on there.
Go this group page I want to kill my teacher! and click on almost any members page where you can typically find their first and last name as well as their hometown. Why would it not be legitimate for law enforcement to scan all members pages for more specific threat language and investigate?
A first and last name, typically a photo and a hometown is likely more than enough to identify a subject -- throw face recognition and a database of school id photos and you are good to go. I don't see anything wrong with that.
Does someone out there thinks there is an expectation of privacy for data they post on the internet?
I thought that was exactly what you should NOT expect.
...and I've seen numbers as high as 20% is some countries and even counties in the US.
Try to find a comparable, available position in your city. I'm not as in touch with how IT position availability is, but the scene is not very pretty out there in general.
Keep working while you look for a better situation and improve your resume in your current position.
There was a Seinfeld episode where Kramer went into the post office to stop sending him mail - got me thinking. Why do we have to receive all this crap in a box in our front yard? I pay my bills online or schedule checks from my bank each month. There are few items that I actually open up every month, most go straight into the trash. The items I do open I end up scanning into PDF anyway as invoices or paystubs.
I actually pay for a service like this: Earth Class Mail, there are few others like this too. They receive your mail and scan the envelope which you access online just like your e-mail, then you can pick it up (inconvenient) or scanned, forwarded or shredded/recycled. It's a bit expensive and I've only been doing it for a couple months but so far so good.
I have a real street address (no PO Box) which so far no one has balked at: the DMV, my insurance company, voter registration.
Of course, the reason I am doing this is so that I can live anywhere I want without having to change my address every time I move -- except for magazine subscription (which with the new iPad/eReader devices will hopefully not be needed anymore). I work remote and can take my phone number anywhere I go (skype, vonage, etc) and make or receive calls from my laptop.
We all got that CD. The rest of us just had the good sense not to post it to /.
http://i38.tinypic.com/ipbimb.jpg
I applaud your use of the "less-evil" description of his system.
I'm not sure how long that has been in place, but don't you think he should have moved it a little further ahead himself?
How about basing teacher pay on performance?
I mean, having a degree certainly doesn't mean you can teach anything.
Now that I've done the heavy lifting someone reply with the performance metrics.
psst, can we make the "celebrity" Paris Hilton and then kill her anyway in the end?
Sal, c'mon enough already
Just give him spelling lessons so he doesn't embarass himself on
They should have left out the "threat" part and emphasized the "disruptive behavior" and making the teacher "feel threatened".
I've been through several HR training sessions (like most of us) on Sexual Harassment, Discrimination, etc. It all boils down to "sensitivity training" and understanding that certain actions, comments, etc. can be construed in a way other than you intended.
Send the kid to sensitivity training for 6 months. If that doesn't bore him into removing his icon then he's got a real problem. I mean really, no school for 6 months as a punishment? Hah! Try some boring f*ck teaching you how to respect other peoples feelings for an hour a day.
Excellent post. I totally agree, and unlike our current leadership will have no problem acknowledging any errors I have made.
:)
This actually brings another question to mind, should we take into account the current state of world affairs/domestic affairs in determining what is a reasonable expectation of our rights?
Do we have a rigid set of inalienable rights, or are they flexible, and ebb and flow with the situation we find ourselves in? Big question, something to think about. I personally think that being totally inflexible in anything is a detriment, there should be limits but as they say desperate times call for desperate measures. Not that we are desperate....yet
I'm hoping your reply was partially humorous. Sometimes you can't tell :)
That's another point entirely which could launch an entire philosophical debate on right and wrong, human rights, etc.
My main point was that, as far as I know, no one is being physically harmed due only to the data mining of telephone records. Granted people may eventually be inconvenienced, imprisoned and (with the current dopes in charge) tortured, but that (hopefully) will only be after much more investigation and information is gathered.
Apples and Oranges.
Unfortunately, I think that it is the people who *can* make this connection in their heads, and then blather on about it, are the ones who do a disservice to constitutional protections. Most logical people (in my estimation) do not make this connection and consider those who do 'kooky' thereby giving them a reason to ignore the issue completely.
Just my opinion.
Really? Equal? I just can't get there. Soviet Russia used these types of tools to hurt, incarcerate and kill innocent *people*.
I think the proper argument to my comment here is the "slippery slope". I fully agree that this is a serious matter that should be the subject of outrage. However, you won't win me over with comments that incarcerating and killing political dissidents is equal to data mining phone records.
The purpose of the public outcry is to let our elected officials know that they had better watch their step -- keeping their footing on that slippery slope. However, it is a *slope*, there are levels of injustice here...in my mind anyway.
Of a bigger concern to me is this: How long will the public outcry last on this issue? Does the duration and level of outrage grow as we move down the slippery slope? Are American citizens, in this day and age, at all capable of pursuing the drastic measure needed to curtail further injustices or are we just a bunch of reactionaries who don't really care?
I do agree that we need to 'nip it in the bud' for a variety of reasons. Just don't compare data mining which could at worst be compared to Senator McCarthys Communist hearings to what happened to people in the Eastern Bloc, I find it pretentious and utterly ignorable.
Maybe I just don't get it. In my mind I simply cannot equate tapping a phone line to incarcerating *people*. There is a huge step from listening to my phone sex calls to throwing me in jail. I'm not saying that there isn't a slippery slope here, or that we should be giving anyone a pass for this. I'm just saying there are gradiations of infringement.
The original parent said he grew up in the Eastern Bloc where this sort of tool was used to kill and imprison political dissidents. Isn't there a difference here?
You are right, and in the Eastern Bloc they did not kill or imprison *every* person. It's all good until they come for you, right?
Really? You mean political opponents and vocal critics being killed and imprisoned in eastern Europe during the cold war doesn't quite measure up to tapping a telephone line? I think you need to have your scales of justice recalibrated.
on second thought this post is not worth the effort of thinking up a few silly, obvious headlines...
Will Sony face future repercussions for this potentially long-term damage?
no
Thank god, I'm tired of the pressure of having to moderate. Now I can just read at +5.
I hate pipsquekale.
While part of my post was in jest, the fact of the matter is that NSA and DOD technology is typically a generation ahead of what is available to the public (if not more). Granted, quantum computing is probably not going on at the NSA, but they have some super smart people working for them who are ahead of the curve and can spend good chunks of change on technology that may not be 'viable' (read: worth it) to 99.9% of the earths population.
Plus, they've got that damned alien technology!