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

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"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.

Common Core Dissent *NOT* Appreciated by Connecticut Police Officer

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Common Core, Connecticut, government overreach, Police State, Spying, surveillance

Missouri Education Watchdog by Gretchen Logue

A dossier of sorts was compiled by a police officer on an Connecticut citizen organizing an anti-Common Core informational session. Maybe the police officer didn’t like that the dissenter is a Republican or is a ‘birther’. Is dissent by a citizen with such credentials considered patriotic or a threat to the State?

From Greenwich CT and Bob Horton: Police captain confused ‘service’ with ‘surveillance’:

‘One day in late August, local political activist Arthur “Cort” Wrotnowski placed flyers on car windshields in the Island Beach ferry parking lot, hoping to drum up a crowd that would listen to his take on the perils of the Common Core, the controversial federal and state educational reform initiative.

His flyers were not compelling enough to get people to give up the outdoors on one of the last beautiful Friday nights of the summer; only two people attended the early evening event at Town Hall on August 28. But the one-page notice did catch the eye of Greenwich Police Captain Mark Kordick, head of the Detective Division and an almost three-decade veteran of the force. He immediately drafted an email to School Superintendent William McKersie, informing the schools chief of the anti-Common Core meeting. That set off a chain of events that resulted Thursday in First Selectmen and Police Commissioner Peter Tesei starting an investigation into Captain Kordick’s behavior.

At issue in the investigation are questions about the proper role of police…

Continue Reading Article – Missouri Education Watchdog

This is not my America or the America I want for my grandchildren. Captain Kordick’s actions are in fact “surveillance,” i.e., “surreptitious monitoring” and a subtle form of bullying by an officer of the court.

I always suspected that Janet Napolitano’s “if you see something, say something” meme was shutting down voices of dissent from those who refuse to go along but going after someone because he or she is holding a forum on the perils of Common Core is an overreach and abuse of power.

Kordick’s rationalization of infringing upon Mr. Wrotnowski’s right of free speech and spying on his activities brings to mind DHS’ Lexicon of extremists dispatched years ago to law enforcement across the country.

It is madness.

Behold – The Police State Going Robotic.

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NSA, Police State, Privacy, surveillance

Free Patriot

California-based Knightscope company has recently revealed their K5 robots with a proposal that they will be able to “predict and prevent crime with an innovative combination of hardware, software and social engagement.”  Knightscope feels their inventions can help make local communities safer, and give law enforcement the upper hand with these advanced crime fighting tools in their arsenal….

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Breathalyzer comes to mind.

Regardless of the spin, this is the police state going robotic.

 

Facial recognition, the movie, “Minority Report”, outstanding warrants, data mining and spying comes to mind with this image.

Sidebar:

I wonder how the grievance industry is going to handle this one? How long will it take for Jesse Jackson, Jr., the NAACP and Al Sharpton to accuse the K5 of racial profiling?

End of Sidebar.

 

…And it’s being touted as the next best thing since baked bread.

Here are a few of the articles touting the virtues of K-5.  Note the titles of the latest news articles listed on the Knightscope website:

The Observer – Five Things We Love.
Forbes – The Knightscope K5 Redefines Security Industry
CNBC – Machines Rise to the Challenge
Mashable – A Roomba for Crime
Bloomberg TV – Crime Fighting Robotic Guard for $6.25 an Hour
Save us (my emphasis) Newsweek – The Robots Are Coming
VIDEO: Is This A Real RoboCop?
Tech Gen Mag – Revolutionizing Crime Prevention
USA Today – Change Agents: Robots Raise Hope for Safer Society

 

NSA, spying, surveilance, Fourth Amendment violations

From the home page of Knightscope’s website:

The Birth of a New Hometown Hero

Imagine a friend that can see, hear, feel and smell that would tirelessly watch over your neighborhood, keep your loved ones safe and put a smile on anyone walking by your business. Imagine if we could utilize technology to make our communities stronger and safer…..together.

Knightscope is developing technology that will predict and prevent crime with an innovative combination of hardware, software and social engagement.

Crime has a $1+ trillion negative economic impact on the US each year and it will only worsen with the continued increases in population, strains on municipal budgets and volatility around the world.

Invest in Knightscope on AngelList!

How Does it Work?

The Knightscope K5 Autonomous Data Machine utilizes a combination of autonomous robots and predictive analytics to provide a commanding but friendly physical presence while gathering important real-time on-site data with numerous sensors.

Data collected through these sensors is processed through our predictive analytics engine, combined with existing business, government and crowdsourced social data sets, and subsequently assigned an alert level that determines when the community and the authorities should be notified of a concern.

If an alert is pushed, the K5 machine will turn on all of its sensors to allow the entire community to review everything and also contribute important real-time information. Our approach alleviates any privacy concerns, engages the community on a social level to effectively crowdsource security, and provides an important feedback loop to the prediction engine.

 

Knightscope’s Mission – Cut Crime by 50%

CUSTOMER Applications

Knightscope’s quickest avenue to commercialize the K5 technology is to augment private security services on corporate campuses and in large, vacant buildings and warehouses. Tedious and monotonous monitoring should be handled by the K5, leaving “hands-on” activities to security personnel.

Knightscope has also received numerous inquiries proposing a variety of use cases where the K5 would make a positive impact. These offer substantial future growth opportunities in areas including, but not limited to, schools, shopping centers, hotels, auto dealerships, stadiums, casinos, law enforcement agencies, seaports, and airports.

 

As if you have not had enough, below is Knightscope’s three minute pitch (video).

 

 

Communism 2.0.  Because it’s for the greater good.

 

LINKS:
http://freepatriot.org/2014/02/04/knightscope-pushes-crime-predicting-robots-law-enforcement-tools-keep-problematic-areas-check/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=knightscope-pushes-crime-predicting-robots-law-enforcement-tools-keep-problematic-areas-check
http://knightscope.com/

“Electronic Surveillance Of Private Citizens … Subversive Of Constitutional Government” Was One Of The Articles Of Impeachment Against President Richard Nixon Approved By A Bipartisan 28 To 10 Vote Of The House Judiciary Committee On July 27, 1974

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impeach, nixon, NSA, obama, surveillance

Washington Post

Why Isn’t Obama Impeached for Mass Surveillance?

One of the crimes against the Constitution for which the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon was:

The electronic surveillance of private citizens … subversive of constitutional government ….

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