XIAM007

Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Twitter will notify users before handing info to authorities - so they can defend themselves -

Twitter will notify users before handing info to authorities - so they can defend themselves - 


Twitter will seek to notify its users so they can defend themselves before it hands over user information to the authorities, a senior manager said on Wednesday when asked about a privacy dispute in Britain.
“Platforms should have responsibility not to defend the user, but to protect that user’s right to defend him or herself,” said Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter’s European operations.
Users have posted details on Twitter of celebrity scandals, in contravention of so-called super injunctions.
Super injunctions, issued by English courts, ban media outlets from mentioning not only the details of the case and the identities of those involved but even the existence of the injunction itself.
Breaching the order would put someone in contempt of court, liable to an unlimited fine and up to two years in prison.
Mainstream media organizations have reluctantly obeyed such court orders, but in recent weeks a string of identities have leaked, largely via Twitter and the wider Internet—in an echo of the unsuccessful attempts to suppress the publication of WikiLeaks cables on the Internet.
Lawyers representing one of the celebrities named, Manchester United footballer Ryan Giggs, have asked U.S.-based Twitter via a London court for information about the users who published his name in tweets.
Wang, who was speaking at the e-G8 Internet forum in Paris, said he could not comment specifically on the cases in Britain, but said: “If we’re legally required to turn over user information, to the extent that we can, we want to notify the user involved, let them know and let them exercise their rights under their own jurisdiction.
“That’s not to say that they will ultimately prevail, that’s not to say that law enforcement doesn’t get the information they need, but what it does do is take that process into the court of law and let it play out there.”
A British politician identified Giggs on Monday in parliament as the soccer star fighting a legal battle to prevent newspapers publishing allegations of an affair.
John Hemming, who campaigns for press freedom, used parliamentary privilege, which allows parliamentarians to raise legal issues without fear of prosecution.
Hemming said he had acted after lawyers asked for information about Twitter users. “If you are going to have an expensive firm of lawyers chasing down ordinary people, with a view to threatening them with a jail sentence because they have gossiped about a footballer, that is fundamentally wrong,” he told BBC television.
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron has promised a review of privacy laws.

Facebook post is calling for Saudi men to beat women who plan to drive cars in a protest next month - Iqal Campaign -

Facebook post is calling for Saudi men to beat women who plan to drive cars in a protest next month - Iqal Campaign - 


A campaign on Facebook is calling for Saudi men to beat women who plan to drive cars in a protest next month, AFP reports.
"The Iqal Campaign: June 17 for preventing women from driving" advocates a cord be used to beat women who plan to drive. Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.
Some 6,000 people have "liked" the campaign on Facebook.
It was created in response to female activist Manal al-Sharif, who created a page calling for Saudi women to defy the driving ban on June 17. 
Her page was taken down following her arrest for driving May 22 in the Saudi city of Khobar.
A petition has been launched to release al-Sharif from jail, garnering more than 300 signatures, according to AFP.
Saudi Arabia is the last country in the world to ban women from driving.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/05/25/saudi-facebook-campaign-calls-men-beat-women-drivers/#ixzz1NNoiK0nZ

Union members are only 12 percent of all employees but have gotten 50.3 percent of Obamacare waivers -

Union members are only 12 percent of all employees but have gotten 50.3 percent of Obamacare waivers - 

Question: What do the following have in common? Eckert Cold Storage Co., Kerly Homes of Yuma, Classic Party Rentals, West Coast Turf Inc., Ellenbecker Investment Group Inc., Only in San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, International Pacific Halibut Commission, City of Puyallup, Local 485 Health and Welfare Fund, Chicago Plastering Institute Health & Welfare Fund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Teamsters Local 522 Fund Welfare Fund Roofers Division, StayWell Saipan Basic Plan, CIGNA, Caribbean Workers' Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Health and Welfare Plan.
Answer: They are all among the 1,372 businesses, state and local governments, labor unions and insurers, covering 3,095,593 individuals or families, that have been granted a waiver from Obamacare by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.
All of which raises another question: If Obamacare is so great, why do so many people want to get out from under it?
More specifically, why are more than half of those 3,095,593 in plans run by labor unions, which were among Obamacare's biggest political supporters? Union members are only 12 percent of all employees but have gotten 50.3 percent of Obamacare waivers.
Just in April, Sebelius granted 38 waivers to restaurants, nightclubs, spas and hotels in former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco congressional district. Pelosi's office said she had nothing to do with it.
On its website HHS pledges that the waiver process will be transparent. But it doesn't list those whose requests for waivers have been denied.


Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/05/obama-skirts-rule-law-reward-pals-punish-foes#ixzz1NMp9dack