Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’
Choose 60 days in jail or 30 days of apologizing on Facebook?
Photographer Mark Byron was so bothered by his pending divorce and child visitation issues that he blasted his soon-to-be ex-wife on his personal Facebook page…That touched off a battle that resulted in a Hamilton County judge ordering Byron jailed for his Facebook rant — or, to avoid the jail sentence, to post on his page an apology to his wife and all of his Facebook friends, something free-speech experts found troubling…
Hanni Fakhoury, a staff lawyer with the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the rulings are unique and “raise quite a few” free-speech issues…”There haven’t been a lot of cases that have dealt with this particular issue,” he said.
Mark and Elizabeth Byron had a son in July 2010, but their marriage soon became troubled. She accused him of verbally abusing her, threatening her with his fist and threatening to “end” her life. While Mark Byron, who has done freelance photography for The Enquirer, was exonerated of criminal allegations, a civil protective order was issued instructing him to stay away from his wife…
“… if you are an evil, vindictive woman who wants to ruin your husband’s life and take your son’s father away from him completely — all you need to do is say that you’re scared of your husband or domestic partner… , ” he wrote on Facebook.
Elizabeth Byron learned of the post — even though her husband had blocked her from viewing his page — and thought it violated a previous protective order that prevented Mark Byron from doing anything to cause his wife “to suffer physical and/or mental abuse, harassment, annoyance, or bodily injury…”
Domestic Relations Magistrate Paul Meyers found Mark Byron in contempt and ordered him jailed for 60 days beginning March 19 — or to post for 30 days on his Facebook page an apology to his wife, written by Meyers, if he wanted to avoid jail. He also had to pay her $1,156 in back child support and her lawyers’ fees…
“I didn’t think I had an option,” said Mark Byron, who has been posting the apology on Facebook for a week.
Har. The free speech question is an important one. Having a husband who’s an ego-smitten fool – and possibly dangerous – is another.
You can RTFA for the content of his new posting.
Another green data center for Oregon — this one for Apple
Facebook’s data center in Prineville, OR
Last December, people familiar with the matter indicated that Apple was “nearing a decision” to build a server farm in Oregon. After a filing with the Crook County clerk’s office emerged last week with Apple’s name on it, the Cupertino, Calif., company has publicly confirmed the development, which is known as “Project Maverick…”
“We purchased the land and it’s for a data center,” said Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet, adding that the facility will be “green.” Earlier this week, the company revealed in a Facilities Environmental Report that its massive server farm in North Carolina will utilize the largest end-user-owned onsite solar array and the largest non utility fuel cell installation in the U.S., making it the only facility in its class to earn LEED Platinum certification.
According to the report, county commissioners signed the deed for the purchase on Feb. 15, the same day that the state senate voted in legislation that removed an earlier threat of property taxes for data centers in the area.
Officials said they were bound by non-disclosure agreements and offered few details on the project, though one judge did say that he’s confident it will be “good for Prineville and Crook County.”
“These folks have been wonderful to work with,” said Judge Mike McCabe. “We will look forward to a long-term relationship with them.”
Apple’s facility will be just minutes from a Facebook server farm that opened last year. McCabe revealed that the social networking site “kind of helped recruit” Apple to come to Prineville. Facebook reportedly allowed Apple representatives to tour its facility last summer.
Keep on rocking in the Geek World. Oregon is one of those places where anyone who is hip should consider living – unless you prefer being as dry as I am in New Mexico.
Priest off to a retreat to pray – was one of the survivors of the Costa Concordia wreck
An Italian priest has a lot of explaining to do after telling his parishioners he was going on a spiritual retreat, only for it to be revealed that he was on the capsized Costa Concordia cruise ship.
Father Massimo Donghi told his parishioners that he was heading off for a week of contemplation and prayer, but instead boarded the luxury liner at Civitavecchia, north of Rome, for a luxury cruise of Mediterranean ports.
He was found out when his nephew, who was also on the cruise, posted assurances on Facebook that the priest had survived the disaster.
The nephew told worried friends and relatives that he, his uncle and the priest’s elderly mother had managed to get into lifeboats when the 1,000ft liner ran aground off the Tuscan island of Giglio. They were among the 4,200 passengers and crew who were forced to evacuate the ship after it smashed into a rocky shoal on the night of Jan 13…
Father Donghi…will now have to explain himself to his parishioners in Besana Brianza, near Monza in northern Italy.
Church-goers had imagined he had signed up for a week of simple living and religious devotion, rather than a cruise on board a ship which boasts spas, saunas, jacuzzis, four swimming pools, five restaurants, 13 bars, a casino and a discotheque.
“What do you want me to say?” the priest told an Italian news magazine, Panorama. “I have nothing to add. I’m OK although I’m still a bit in shock. I will talk to my parishioners in church. The judgment of others is not important to me.”
Thoughtful dude. And a few more days to come up with a story will probably help.
I wonder if he was strolling the ship in his civvies or in uniform?
FBI wants an app to monitor what you say at Facebook and Twitter
The FBI plans to step up the monitoring of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and has asked for help building an app to constantly monitor the sites.
Earlier this month the FBI quietly published a request for information looking for companies that might help it build a new social network monitoring system looking at “publicly available” information. Contractors have until 10 February to suggest solutions.
US enforcement agencies have increasingly been using social networks to track crime. Recently over 40 members of two feuding New York gangs were indicted in connection with a series of shootings and killings in Brooklyn after they boasted about their crimes on Twitter…
But the increasing monitoring of social networks has also alarmed privacy advocates. Last year, Twitter disclosed that the justice department had subpoenaed it to get personal records of Icelandic MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a former WikiLeaks aide.
Lillie Coney, associate director of EPIC, a Washington-based privacy group, called the FBI request “ridiculous.”
“Get a warrant,” she said. “You don’t know half the people you communicate with on Twitter. They are going to launch investigations and start looking at all sorts of people that they have no right to be investigating. There is no accountability, no transparency and no oversight.”
The RFI calls on companies to develop a “secure, light weight web application” for the FBI’s strategic information and operations center. “The application must have the ability to rapidly assemble critical open source information and intelligence that will allow SIOC to quickly vet, identify, and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats.”
The product must allow the FBI to keep hold of cached information as well as real time data, and allow that information to be linked to specific locations and easily shared…
The FBI did not return calls for comment.
I haven’t any beef with the premise of government recording, analyzing public data. In and of itself, that can be productive and useful. The concern is as old as the FBI. That is, what will they do with the information?
Guidance, oversight, standards of decency reflecting our Constitutional freedoms have little to do with day to day practices in the FBI – or in practice all the way down to local law enforcement. I witnessed a friend’s guitar smashed by a copper because he showed up on the NCIC computer in the state trooper’s car as someone who opposed the VietNam War, worked for civil rights in Boston. Our justice system did nothing about that. Petty assaults on individual rights are a disgusting part of how law enforcement is practiced in the United States at ground level.
Why should I trust those who set the standards at the top – when they do little or nothing to enforce those standards down through the agencies they guide? We’re as likely to be harassed at work or home by info delivered to the FBI as being protected from gangbanger assaults.
Geeks continue to admonish newbies to realize that everything they say online is out there for the world to see. There is no privacy on public parts of the Web. I would add another reminder to my fellow Americans. Since the first time I stood up publicly and opposed racist law and practice — in a demonstration 50 miles from the White House in 1960 — I have had a file on my activities in the FBI. That’s a fact of life for anyone in this land who dissents. It’s a badge of honor.
Manchester coppers failed to contact father about his son’s murder — before he read about his death on Facebook
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
Police have apologised after it emerged that the father of a student shot dead in Manchester on Boxing Day found out about his son’s murder on Facebook.
Anuj Bidve, 23, was shot in the head at point-blank range as he walked with friends near their hotel in the inner-city Ordsall district of Salford in the early hours of December 26. The murder of the Indian student is being treated by detectives at Greater Manchester Police (GMP) as a hate crime which may have been racially motivated.
Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley, who has overall command for the investigation, confirmed that Subhash Bidve, the victim’s father, read a post on the social networking site before officers were able to get in touch to deliver the news first.
She said: “That is not the way anyone should have to find out something so devastating and we completely understand how upset the family are. Social networking is instantaneous and we have no control over when and what people post on such sites, but no one should hear such tragic news in this way.”
Facebook launches tool to aid suicide prevention
Facebook launched a new suicide prevention tool on Tuesday, giving users a direct link to an online chat with counselors who can help, the company said.
Friends are able to report suicidal behavior by clicking a report option next to any piece of content on the site and choosing suicidal content under the harmful behavior option, Facebook spokesman Frederic Wolens said. Facebook will then email the user in distress a direct link for a private online chat with a crisis representative from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline as well as the group’s phone number.
The new tool gives people who may not be comfortable picking up the phone a direct avenue to seek help…
Users also have the ability to report suicidal behavior by going to the site’s Help Center or search for suicide reporting forms. They can also use reporting links around the site.
Worried friends who reported the behavior will also receive a message to say it is being addressed, Wolens said…
The new suicide reporting tool will be made available to people who use Facebook in the United States and Canada…All reporting on the site is done anonymously and so a distressed user will not know who reported the suicidal content.
Right idea, good idea. Too late for a young guy I worked with.
I didn’t know enough about what to do or where to point him for help – when he asked my opinion of suicide. If anything, I was rather abrupt. A habit, a style you regulars will recognize. 
He killed himself a week later – disconsolate over a failed relationship.
Qantas achieves world-class Fail with their Twitter PR hustle
Qantas PR Manager
Australia’s Qantas Airlines has been left red-faced after an ill-timed public relations campaign and Twitter competition backfired, drawing thousands of angry responses.
Qantas Tuesday invited users of the micro-blogging site to enter a “Qantas Luxury” competition, asking people to describe their “dream luxury in-flight experience” and possibly win a pair of Qantas first-class pyjamas and a toiletries kit.
The timing of the PR exercise was questionable, coming just a day after Qantas and its unions broke off contract negotiations and after Qantas grounded its fleet in late October, a drastic move that stranded thousands of angry customers.
PR experts said the campaign was perhaps Australia’s greatest public relations failure and a classic example of the dangers of unpredictable social media…
Unimpressed Twitter users set a stream of responses ranging from caustic jokes about the carrier to ordinary abuse…
Daniel Angus, using the Twitter name “antmandan,” said Qantas luxury meant “being stranded on the other side of the world without warning when you just want to get home to your 10-month-old daughter.”
Qantas last week hired four social media monitors to keep tabs on what people were saying about it on Twitter and Facebook after the fleet grounding. The carrier has also promised generous compensation for stranded passengers.
Cripes – there’s a job description for a truly bored geek.
My favorite Tweet was from user “stanofid” who called the campaign the “Hindenburg of social media strategies.”
Just the gift for bioterrorist moms!
Shopping online can be a real time-saver, and you can get some great deals. But skip lollipops that come with the virus that causes chickenpox.
This caution comes after a woman in Nashville, Tenn., advertised lollipops contaminated with the varicella virus on Facebook. The tainted pops were intended for parents who want to expose their children to the disease.
A Nashville TV station spotted the woman’s posts, in which she also offered to ship spit and cotton swabs, all for a mere $50, payable through PayPal. The woman, Wendy Werkit, told WSMV reporter Kimberly Curth that she had shipped lollipops that had been sucked on by her children, “so that other peoples’ kids can get chickenpox.”
State health officials were horrified at the prospect, and pointed out that not only is the varicella vaccine much safer for children than getting the disease itself, but spreading the virus could pose a serious risk to children who can’t be vaccinated because they are undergoing cancer treatment or have other health problems…
Before the vaccine was introduced, parents would sometimes expose their children to others who were sick with the disease, so the children would have a reduced risk of serious infection as adults. The idea has since been adopted by some parents leery of vaccines.
Some parents also think that the natural immunity children gain from having a disease is better than the immunity they get from shots…
These people are a case study in being “naturally” stupid. Yes, that’s stupid not ignorant. If you have at least a 6th grade education, you know better.
Of course, a lot of this centers around the nutball home-schoolers dedicated to one or another religious sect. They work very hard at excluding reason, science and rational thought from their children and their own lives. They equally pose a health threat to members of the larger community who may not know they’re standing in the grocery checkout line next to the village idiot.
Dad harassed for taking photos of daughter eating ice cream
One of the “terrorist” photos
A father has been questioned by police under anti-terror laws for taking pictures of his own daughter in a shopping centre.
Chris White was approached by staff after taking a photograph of four-year-old Hazel eating an ice cream in the Braehead shopping centre near Glasgow on Friday afternoon. Mr White was questioned by a security guard, who told him it was illegal to take pictures in the centre. He was then asked to delete any photos he had taken from his mobile phone.
Mr White explained that he had already uploaded two photos, in which his daughter was pictured riding a novelty motorbike in an ice cream parlour, to his Facebook page.
The police were called and Mr White was told there were “clear signs” saying no photographs were allowed. He said one officer claimed that he was within his rights to confiscate the mobile phone containing the pictures under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Lazyass coppers everywhere in the Western world have learned they can shout “Terrorist” and get away with crushing the civil rights of any ordinary citizen.
A Facebook group set up in support of Mr White has called for supporters to boycott the Braehead shopping centre in protest over his treatment. By Monday afternoon, more than 7,700 people had “liked” the ‘Boycott Braehead’ campaign page.
A spokesman for Braehead said…”We have a ‘no photography’ policy in the centre to protect the privacy of staff and shoppers and to have a legitimate opportunity to challenge suspicious behaviour if required. However, it is not our intention to – and we do not – stop innocent family members taking pictures.”
Then put up longer signs with all the ifs, outs and excuses. Meanwhile, the question remains about the legitimacy of inventing private regulations which are counter to constitutional rights. Even for Glaswegians, right?
Supt George Nedley, of Renfrewshire and Inverclyde division…said a full review had been launched.
Holler at your Congress-critter to support Bernie Sanders' bill to 
CIA stalking you? They check up to 5 million tweets a day
with one comment
The Central Intelligence Agency is systematically monitoring Twitter, following up to 5 million foreign tweets a day, according to a new report.
The CIA’s Open Source Center reviews and analyzes information widely available to the general public, including Twitter and Facebook, and keeps eyes on everything from blogs to tweets to more traditional media, The Associated Press says in a feature article on the unit.
Analysts monitor information in an array of languages and cross-reference it to existing intelligence, and are often called on to provide information on the mood of a region after a foreign policy event…
When President Barack Obama gave a speech addressing Middle Eastern issues a few weeks [after Bin Laden's killing], the center monitored negative Arabic and Turkic tweets, denouncing the president as too pro-Israel, and Hebrew tweets criticizing the president for being too pro-Arab.
The center’s analysis ends up in Obama’s daily intelligence briefing in some form almost every day, reports the AP.
The CIA started reviewing social media after watching Twitter’s influence during the 2009 Green Revolution in Iran, when thousands protested the contested results of an election that kept Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in office.
If you believe this started in 2009 or the CIA is a solo operation – I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Want to know how common the task has been, rent Redford’s movie, THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR sometime. The plot doesn’t have to derive from today’s Tweets; but, Redford’s job description in the movie – back in 1975 – certainly fits.
Written by eideard
November 4, 2011 at 10:00 am
Posted in Culture, Politics, Technology
Tagged with AP> CIA, Arab, checking, comments, Facebook, intelligence briefing, Israeli, posts, Twitters