In the 7 years since its inception, Twitter has become an integral part of twenty first century life. Reflecting everything, from people’s routine habits, to revolutionary political messages. And for the last 2 years, every single tweet sent in the U.S. has been stored in a massive archive at the Library of Congress – raising concerns over privacy. The official reason is for research purposes – but so far the data has been kept behind closed doors.
RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 500 million YouTube views benchmark.
Ontario’s highest court has signalled that the right of police officers to look through someone’s phone depends on whether there’s a password.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario says it’s all right for police to have a cursory look through the phone upon arrest if it’s not password protected, but if it is, investigators should get a search warrant.
The court’s ruling comes in the case of a man who appealed his robbery conviction, arguing that police breached his charter rights by looking through his phone after his arrest.
Kevin Fearon was arrested in July 2009, after a jewelry stall at a flea market in Toronto was robbed, and police found pictures of a gun and cash as well as a text message about jewelry on his phone.
The Appeal Court denied his appeal, saying that police were allowed to look through Fearon’s phone “in a cursory fashion” to see if there was evidence relevant to the crime, but after that they should have stopped to get a search warrant.
The court says if the phone had been password protected or otherwise locked to anyone other than its owner, “it would not have been appropriate” to look through the phone without a search warrant.
The Appeal Court judges referenced a decision in a murder case in which the judge did not allow evidence from a personal electronic device because it “functioned as a mini-computer,” which has a high expectation of privacy. The contents of that device were only extracted by a police officer using specialized equipment in that case, the Appeal Court judges noted.
“There was no suggestion in this case that this particular cell phone functioned as a ‘mini-computer’ nor that its contents were not ‘immediately visible to the eye,’ the court said in its ruling, released Wednesday.
“Rather, because the phone was not password protected, the photos and the text message were readily available to other users.”
The court, though, declined to create a specific new rule for all cellphone searches.
“It may be that some future case will produce a factual matrix that will lead the court to carve out a cellphone exception to the law,” the ruling said. “To put it in the modern vernacular: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”‘
The debate surrounding the Ontario Welfare system, and more specifically what the recipients are doing with the money they receive. Has been highly publicized over the years. With many politicians offering tinker box solutions, that do not seem to solve any problems there might be.
One of the main concerns of tax payers and politicians alike has been that Ontario works recipients are spending the monies on alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, etc. Instead of essential needs. Who wants to be paying for other peoples vices right?
Tim Hudak and the Ontario PC’s announced a plan to overhaul the welfare system on Thursday morning.
Source: ctvnews.ca
Highlights of the 12 “paths to prosperity” outlined in the 22-page Tory “white paper” introduced Thursday include:
rolling Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program into one agency with streamlined rules
submitting all social programs to “value-for-money” audits
opening up social program delivery to non-profit agencies, charities or the private sector
a requirement for individualized employment plans that detail the monthly activities required to qualify for income support
steadily declining benefits, to discourage long-term reliance on welfare cheques
the implementation of a “benefits-directed debit smart card system” to ensure benefits are spent on essential food items rather than other expenses. Continue Reading
The last highlight of their “paths to prosperity” is to issue a “smart” debit card to recipients. Makes sense right? Blocking the ability for them to purchase any of the unwanted items.
But sadly like most idea’s that seem to make sense. It is only a first stage. Using a government issued “smart” card would mean that government agents (employees) will be able to track and access all records for everything that these people buy. There are many books and documentary’s out there, that spell out how this type of control can go wrong.
Envision a future where every purchase you make is stored in a database. Later in life you develop a disease, for this I will use the example of diabetes. Doctors will be able to look into your history and conclude that you treatment should cost X amount of dollars more, because you purchased chocolate ice cream on a regular basis.
And as most totalitarian laws/regulations. The low income, impoverished people will be affected first.
This type of totalitarianism in not needed. The human race is a innovative beautiful thing! We can adapt, problem solve, and figure out some of the most difficult questions in life. It is time to use that, in fixing these everyday problems rather than turning to big daddy government to do it for us!
More and more domestic drones are flying in the skies over the US. Will they make society safer? Could they be armed? To what extent would the use of domestic drones undermine privacy and other civil liberties? Do drones make America a ‘surveillance society’? CrossTalking with Medea Benjamin, Ray McGovern and Christopher Jenks.
Bill C-30, the “Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act”, was presented to Canadians less than one year ago. The bill gathered a lot of attention after public safety minister Vic Toews gave his insane ultimatum to a liberal critic, on the house of commons floor.
“He can either stand with us or stand with the child pornographers”
Justice minister Rob Nicholson announced on Monday that Bill C-30 is dead.
Quote:
“We will not be proceeding with Bill C-30 and any attempts we will have to modernize the Criminal Code will not contain the measures in C-30 — including the warrantless mandatory disclosure of basic subscriber information, or the requirement for telecommunications service providers to build intercept capabilities within their systems,”
Does this mean that Canadians are free from internet surveillance, while our neighbors to the south are now having to deal with president Obama using his executive power to force CISPA through?
Of course not! Bill C-11 Copyright Modernization Act, was passed and came into law not too long ago.
Bill C-11 included things such as:
1. Tough rules that could require intermediaries from ISPs through to search engines (e.g. Google), social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Digg, Twitter) and data/web hosting sites (e.g. BlackSun and other “cloud” providers) to block access to websites and others alleged to enable copyright infringement.
2. The substitution of a “notice and take-down” as well as the graduated response regime that would see ISPs disconnect subscribers accused of repeated copyright infringement instead of the much less intrusive “notice-and-notice” regime already included in the bill and practiced as a matter of course by all of Canada’s major ISPs.
3. Claw backs to the innovative user-generated content (UGC) clause of the act that allows people to make mashups and remixes for non-commercial uses.
4. Copyright term extension from lifetime of the creator plus 50 years to life plus 70 years. Source
We also cannot forget about ACTA the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Which Canada signed on to in 2011.
“Under this new treaty, Internet Service Providers will police all data passing through them, making them legally responsible for what their users do online. And should you do something considered “breach of copyright” like, for instance, getting a tattoo of a brand logo, taking a photo and posting it somewhere, you may be disconnected from the Internet, fined or even jailed.
This, of course, threatens the entire founding idea of the Internet – the free sharing of information. But ACTA doesn’t stop there. It goes beyond the Internet, bearing down on generic drugs and food patents. If passed, ACTA will enforce a global standard for seed patenting, which would wipe out independent, local farmers and make the world completely dependent on the patent owners (read “big corporations”) for supplies.
The agreement states that it must be signed and ratified by 2013, but the seemingly late deadline is no cause for celebration. And if the secrecy surrounding this latest censor tool continues to hold, it may be put into effect without anyone noticing.” Source
Defeating Bill C-30 was a great victory. The people of Canada won a battle, but the war on internet freedom is far from over.
By: Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
Justice minister Rob Nicholson announced on Monday that Bill C-30 is dead.
PN 