Congress Suspending the Rules to rush through bill for National Citizen Data System: HR4174

Tags

breach, CEP, China Sesame Credit, HR4174, national database, Privacy, S2046, Security, student unit record, unconstituional

While Americans are being distracted with propaganda, the GOP is rushing to push through legislation for a NSA-like national database of student information, something of which both parties will approve. They must be stopped.

Missouri Education Watchdog by Cheri Kiesecker

Bill to be heard this week. Contact your Congressman now.

CALL YOUR HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES MONDAY, see directory here.

Congress is rushing through bill HR4174 THIS WEEK. Yes, there are lots of bills in play but #THIS is the one to watch.

The US House is scheduled to vote this week on a bill to make a massive federal data system -merging information from all federal agencies, all citizens- much like China. See here and here. This bill is the result of the CEP Commission which would include data on school children, creating a “pinterest of student data” and an NSA-like national database of student information. We wrote about the CEP commission, with posted transcripts and video here.

Is Congress aware of the privacy concerns and will they be addressed?

There was tremendous public opposition to the CEP Commission’s proposal to create a national student record, as stated on page 30 of the CEP report: “Nearly two-thirds of the comments received in response to the Commission’s Request for Comments raised concerns about student records, with the majority of those comments in opposition to overturning the student unit record ban or otherwise enabling the Federal government to compile records about individual students.”

The House Oversight Committee **already passed** this bill on a voice vote (watch here, begins at 11min mark, vote at 35min mark) and now HR4174 is going to be voted on the House Floor under *Suspended Rules* this week[…]

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They know what you did last year and they recorded it. Here’s how to delete.

Tags

audio, creepy, data, Facebook, geo-location, Google, history, location, mapping, microphone, Privacy, recording

Missouri Education Watchdog by Cheri Kiesecker

Depending on your settings, Google has your voice recorded, your searches recorded, HAS YOUR LOCATION, your whereabouts over the past year recorded and mapped.

Yes, this is real.

Follow the simple instructions below to see what is recorded on your phone- or children’s phones and learn how to delete the recordings. Then, CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS.

It is worth your time to do this. Get this. I had an old android phone. When I had the old phone, we took a trip. I got a new phone and a new computer after this trip (my old computer went black screen and died.) So, two new devices, after this trip.

Logging onto my new phone today, to see if Google really does record and store your voice and map your travels… Sure enough, Google had my location, every place I have gone was marked on the map. Remember, my new phone, my new computer were not even purchased when I went on this trip last year. Google can collect this audio and location data from your phone and store it in their cloud. You can clear cookies (which I do), you can get a new device and your data history is still stored, talking to you, and showing you what you searched for, your geo location, where you have been in the world[…]

Continue Reading — They know what you did last year and they recorded it. Here’s how to delete.

This week in data: spying, lying and being human.

Tags

"Human", being human, breach, Colorado, Colorado Hb1423, Congress, data, data collection, data privacy, data tracking, Dataminr, Ethics, Facebook, FTC, Garnett, Global Education Futures Initiative, Google, Lundeen, Microsoft, morals, Privacy, privacy bills, surveillance, Twitter

Missouri Education Watchdog by Cheri Kiesecker

NO this isn’t everything that happened in data, not even close. When you start paying attention, you see that data breaches are happening daily , internet outages, cables cut, privacy bills passing, privacy bills getting killed or weakened by the very industry taking the data, internet as a human right, tremendous expansion of online education and blended learning, lawsuits, who’s spying on who…it’s everywhere and it’s enough to make your head spin. So, today, I write on just a few of the data stories of this week. You will want to read- They are big stories. Click on the links to read the full stories. Be sure to read the last one from Microsoft on being human.

 

Twitter -Dataminr have been providing U.S. intelligence agencies with data

[T]he chilly relationship between government bodies and private tech businesses is growing frostier by the day. In the latest development, it has emerged that Twitter requested one of its key B2B partners, Dataminr — a service that offers advanced social media analytics and early detection of major events like terrorist attacks or natural disasters — stop providing U.S. intelligence agencies with their tools and content.

But Dataminr isn’t ending its relationship with the government altogether: Dataminir still counts In-Q-Tel, the non-profit investment arm of the CIA, as an investor. Dataminr has taken investment from Twitter, too, highlighting some of the conflicts that remain as tech companies fight for more transparency and autonomy from government control. Interestingly, the agencies who are at the center of today’s news were using Dataminr in an unpaid pilot, TechCrunch understands. That pilot, which was coming to an end, could not be continued as a paid deal because of pre-existing Twitter policies that forbid selling data for use in government surveillance. The news of Dataminr cutting off intelligence groups was first reported by the WSJ, and we have confirmed the details directly with sources.

What exactly is Dataminr? The company uses Twitter firehose data — the unfiltered, full stream of Tweets from Twitter’s 300m+ users — along with other primary sources,

[…]

Continue Reading — This week in data: spying, lying and being human.

Biggest ever Tor raid hits 410 underground sites; 17 arrested

Tags

DOJ, Europol, FBI, Internet Browsing, Privacy, Spying, Tor

 

PC World by Martyn Williams

Coordinated raids by law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and 16 European countries have closed hundreds of underground websites, including dozens dealing in weapons and drugs, and led to the arrest of 17 people.

The raids took place on Thursday and were the biggest so far against sites running on the Tor network, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and Europol, which cooperated on the action.

Tor is an encrypted system that facilitates anonymous communication. It has plenty of legitimate uses, particularly for evading surveillance in countries with authoritarian governments, but its use by criminals has caused controversy. Police have increasingly been targeting underground websites on Tor, and Thursday’s raids are the latest in that work….

Read full article

Among the shuttered sites are, Blue Sky, Cloud Nine, Executive Outcomes, Fake Real Plastic and Hydra; facing charges ranging from drug dealing, stolen and fake credit cards, identification documents, passports, counterfeit currency and firearms.

Tor is a tool intended to help you stay anonymous online. Its intent is to protect your privacy as you browse the Internet and circumvent government censorship of webpages visited.

According to EFF.org, Tor still works:

One of the many things that we learned from the NSA leaks is that Tor still works. According to the NSA “Tor Stinks” slides revealed by the Guardian last year, the NSA is still not able to completely circumvent the anonymity provided by Tor. They have been able to compromise certain Tor users in specific situations. Historically this has been done by finding an exploit for the Tor Browser Bundle or by exploiting a user that has misconfigured Tor. The FBI—possibly in conjunction with the NSA—was able to find one serious exploit for Firefox that lead to the takedown of Freedom Hosting and exploit of its users. Firefox was patched quickly, and no major exploits for Firefox affecting Tor users appear to have been found since.

That is until this latest takedown.

Admittedly, prior to the American government in collusion with the British government’s infiltration of Tor, I was a fan.

That being said, the jury is still out as to whether or not these raids every now and then are apparatus put into place merely to justify NSA violating the fourth amendment rights of those who use Tor, the majority of whom are law abiding.

One of the most common misconceptions we hear is that Tor is only used by criminals and pedophiles. This is simply not true! There are many types of people that use Tor. Activists use it to circumvent censorship and provide anonymity. The military uses it for secure communications and planning. Families use Tor to protect their children and preserve their privacy. Journalists use it to do research on stories and communicate securely with sources. The Tor Project website has an excellent explanation of why Tor doesn’t help criminals very much. To paraphrase: Criminals can already do bad things since they will break laws they have much better tools at their disposal than what Tor offers, such as botnets made with malware, stolen devices, identity theft, etc. In fact using Tor may help you protect yourself against some of these tactics that criminals use such as identity theft or online stalking.

You are not helping criminals by using Tor any more than you are helping criminals by using the Internet….

 

 

Source: Eff.Org

 

LINKS:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2845272/biggest-ever-tor-raid-hits-410-underground-sites-17-arrested.html#tk.nl_today
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/07/7-things-you-should-know-about-tor

‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’ for student school data unveiled in New York

Tags

Common Core, Data mining, Education, Parental Rights, Privacy

 

 

Just making the deadline, the New York State Department of Education has come out with a “Parents’ Bill of Rights” regarding the use of student data.

As reported by LoHud, every school district has to post the parents’ bill of rights and name of vendor contract the district enters into if the vendor receives student data. Therein lays the rub, vendors receiving student data. Vendors will have to submit a plan on how they will protect student data.

EAG

…The fact that third-party contractors are still allowed to handle sensitive student data will come as a disappointment to many parents. To stop that practice, however, would likely require a change to the federal government’s FERPA law, which Education Secretary Arne Duncan watered down to help facilitate Common Core-related data sharing….

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View this document on Scribd

The Parents Bill of Rights for Data Privacy and Security is available for viewing here in pdf format.

 

LINKS:
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/docs/parents-bill-of-rights.pdf
http://eagnews.org/parents-bill-of-rights-for-student-school-data-unveiled-in-new-york/
http://www.wgrz.com/story/news/education/2014/07/30/state-offers-last-minute-parents-bill-of-rights-on-protecting-student-data/13360743/

Edward Snowden Statement: Reset the Net

Tags

Edward Snowden, Fourth Amendment, Privacy, Reset the Net

A message from Edward Snowden on the eve of #ResetTheNet

Hey team,

My fingers are trembling a bit as I type this email — partly from exhaustion but mostly from tremendous excitement. Tomorrow we Reset the Net, and start on a path toward securing the web, and defending freedom for generations to come.

Just today, we received a very special message from Edward Snowden himself. All of us at Fight for the Future are humbled, knowing that our huge victories this year mobilizing against government surveillance would not have been possible without him risking everything to expose the abuses of the worlds’ most powerful governments.

I’m pasting Snowden’s statement in its entirety below. Please forward this email to everyone in your address book, and share this far and wide. These last few hours are critical and we need all hands on deck to push Reset the Net over the edge….

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#ResetTheNet – Privacy and Security Tools https://t.co/cQsjzk7Zpy pic.twitter.com/eRnWHP4F4F

— The Hacker News (@TheHackersNews) June 5, 2014

 

See: https://pack.resetthenet.org/
http://fight4future.tumblr.com/post/87856695073/a-message-from-edward-snowden-on-the-eve-of-reset-the
http://www.fightforthefuture.org/