Thursday, February 22, 2018

[rti4empowerment] Re: [IHRO] 'Trump's solution to school shootings: arm teachers with guns': What A Brilliant Idea! Only Trump is capable of producing!?

 

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On Friday, February 23, 2018, 5:33:31 AM GMT+5:30, Sukla Sen sukla.sen@gmail.com [IHRO] <IHRO@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


 


[Priya P Pillai
27 mins · 

Arm teachers with guns .....so that citizens engage in open wars with the attackers and more people get killed in this process and the weapons lobby makes more money out of the situation as we will have schools procuring guns for safety !! Expect Trump to come up with such stuff !!

What an idea sirji !!!]


Florida school shooting
Trump's solution to school shootings: arm teachers with guns
'It is the gun, it's the person behind the gun and it's about helping people before they ever reach that point,' said a mother whose son died at Sandy Hook elementary

David Smith in Washington  @smithinamerica
Wed 21 Feb 2018 22.39 GMT Last modified on Thu 22 Feb 2018 12.21 GMT
 
2:18
 Angry father of Florida victim asks Trump: 'How many children have to get shot?' – video

Donald Trump has said he will consider a proposal to arm school teachers in an attempt to prevent mass shootings, a move certain to prove fiercely divisive.

The US president, holding a listening session at the White House with survivors of last week's Florida school shooting and others affected by gun violence, claimed that allowing airline pilots to carry and conceal guns had demonstrated the measure could be a success.

"It only works when you have people very adept at using firearms, of which you have many," Trump said during an emotionally searing session that, extraordinarily, was broadcast live on national television. "It would be teachers and coaches."

Referring to Aaron Feis, a football coach who used his body as a shield to protect a student during the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, the president continued: "If the coach had a firearm in his locker when he ran at this guy – that coach was very brave, saved a lot of lives, I suspect.

 Julia Cordover, the student body president at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School wipes away tears during a listening session hosted by Donald Trump at the White House. Photograph: Xinhua / Barcroft Images

"But if he had a firearm, he wouldn't have had to run, he would have shot him, and that would have been the end of it. This would only obviously be for people who are very adept at handling a gun. It's called concealed carry, where a teacher would have a concealed gun on them. They'd go for special training and they would be there and you would no longer have a gun-free zone. Gun-free zone to a maniac, because they're all cowards, a gun-free zone is: 'Let's go in and let's attack, because bullets aren't coming back at us'."

Trump added: "An attack has lasted, on average, about three minutes. It takes five to eight minutes for responders, for the police to come in, so the attack is over. If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly."

Knowledge of this would act as a deterrent to a would-be attacker, Trump claimed. "You know, a lot of people don't understand that airline pilots now, a lot of them carry guns, and I have to say that things have changed a lot. People aren't attacking the way they would routinely attack and maybe you would have the same situation in schools."

The president asked for a show of hands in the room over the proposal: some were in favour, others were against. "We can understand both sides and certainly it's controversial," he acknowledged, promising to discuss it seriously.

It emerged after the shooting at Parkland that there was an armed security guard on site but he did not get the chance to engage the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, on the sprawling campus. In May 2016, during the presidential election, Trump tweeted: "Crooked Hillary [Clinton] said that I want guns brought into the school classroom. Wrong!"

 Donald Trump with notes during a listening session with high school students and teachers at the White House on Wednesday.

 Donald Trump with notes during a listening session with high school students and teachers at the White House on Wednesday. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Nicole Hockley, whose six-year-old son Dylan died at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, spoke out against the idea of arming teachers. "It's not personally something that I support. Rather than arming them with a firearm, I would rather arm them with the knowledge of how to prevent these acts from happening in the first place," she told Trump.

Safety assessments programmes and interventions for troubled children are vital, she added. "Let's talk about prevention. There is so much that we can do to help people before it reaches that point, and I urge you please stay focused on that as well. It is the gun, it's the person behind the gun and it's about helping people before they ever reach that point."

Earlier during the session in the state dining room, where some speakers were tearful but composed as they recalled their experiences, Hockley also issued a challenge to the president. "This is not difficult," she told him. "These deaths are preventable. And I implore you: consider your own children. You don't want to be me. No parent does."

During the meeting Trump also asserted that he would be "very strong" on background checks for gun buyers as well as mental health issues. He sat in the middle of a semi-circle listening intently as six survivors of last week's shooting and bereaved parents from Parkland, Columbine, and Sandy Hook took turns to address him.

 
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Crooked Hillary said that I  want guns brought into the school classroom. Wrong!

9:25 AM - May 22, 2016
25.4K
22.3K people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy

Sam Zeif, 18, a Parkland student whose text messages with his brother during last week's shooting went viral, fought back tears as he told Trump: "I turned 18 the day after. Woke up to the news that my best friend was gone. I don't understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war, an AR. I was reading today that a person 20 years old walked into a store and bought an AR-15 in five minutes with an expired ID. How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? How are we not stopping this after Columbine, after Sandy Hook, sitting with a mother that lost her son? It's still happening."

Andrew Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow was killed at Stoneman Douglas, reflected the candid anger of many when he took the microphone. "We're here because my daughter has no voice – she was murdered last week, shot nine times," he said. "How many schools, how many children have to get shot? It stops here, with this administration and me."

Pollack, his voice rising with raw emotion, added: "It should have been one school shooting, and we should have fixed it, and I'm pissed because my daughter, I'm not going to see again."
--
Peace Is Doable


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Posted by: Rahul <bruntno1@yahoo.com>
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Thursday, February 8, 2018

[rti4empowerment] Foreign Firms Granted Full Access To Classified Aadhaar Data! RTI Reply Reveals

 

Foreign Firms Granted Full Access To Classified Aadhaar Data! RTI Reply Reveals

The issue of Aadhaar data, and privacy is far from over.


Aadhaar Card Bill Back

The issue of Aadhaar data, and privacy is far from over, it seems.

In a shocking revelation, it has been found that knowingly or unknowingly, private foreign firms have been granted full access to classified Aadhaar data of billions of Indians.

And the scary part is that, Govt. has been denying the allegations from the start; even as the contract details for Aadhaar clearly proves otherwise.

The question is: Is Govt. of India hiding something from us?

RTI Reply On Aadhaar Data Is Shocking!

Col. Matthew Thomas from Bengaluru is one of the parties in the ongoing Right to Privacy case, being heard in Supreme Court. Earlier, the apex court had declared that Right to Privacy is a fundamental right of every Indian.

For this case, Col. Matthew had filed a RTI request, asking the details about contract given by UIDAI to private firms for collecting Aadhaar data.

As per the reply received under RTI, the Aadhaar contract has given full access to classified data of Indians, to the private firms based out of India.

In fact, the contract requests these companies to store the data for 7 full years as well.

Which Companies Have Been Asked To Store Aadhaar Data?

Govt. has chosen several Biometric Service Providers or BSPs, who are providing hardware and software for collecting Aadhaar related data like biometric scans, iris details, fingerprints etc.

L-1 Identity Solutions Operating Co Pvt Ltd is one such BSP, based out of USA. This company has now been taken over by Safran Group from France. Morpho and Accenture Services Pvt Ltd are other BSPs, who were provider the contract, albeit for 2 years.

What Does The Contract Say?

Now, while providing the contract to BSPs, Govt. formed a various clauses, and it seems that no attention was provided to the aspect of privacy and protection of data by foreign firms.

For instance, Clause 15.1 of the contract, under the heading 'Data and Hardware', states that the firm "may have access to personal data of the purchaser (UID), and/or a third party or any resident of India…"

Clause 3, under Privacy, states that the BSPs can "collect, use, transfer, store and process the data".

Note here, that personal data, in relation to Aadhaar includes everything: biometric data, which includes fingerprint scans and IRIS data, demographic data which includes name, date of birth, address, mobile number; and connected data such as bank details, licence number, PAN number, passport number and any other data provided by the law-abiding citizen as part of KYC.

Not Only Access, But Store The Data As Well!

Accessing sensitive Aadhaar data was, it seems, not enough. Govt. also allowed these private firms to store the data, for 7 years.

As per the contract, in the event of expiry of contract, the concerned BSP "shall transfer all the proprietary templates to UIDAI"

This statement clearly proves that Govt. has asked these private, foreign firms to store the data as well.

Col Matthew rightly asks, "If the firms did not have the biometric data, what were they expected to transfer? Why can't the UIDAI just come out in the open with all the contract details?"

On their part, the private firms have said that they are doing what the contract actually says.

L-1 has said that they have accessed to sensitive Aadhaar data "as part of its job".

It seems that while drafting the regulations and the contract for BSPs, Govt. officials clearly failed to comprehend the dangers of sharing such sensitive data with foreign firms, and ignored the risks involved.

Who is responsible for this data breach?

Lots of questions, but very few answers.

"Foreign Firms Granted Full Access To Classified Aadhaar Data! RTI Reply Reveals", 5 out of 5 based on 2 ratings.

Mohul keenly observes the nuances of Indian startup world; and tries to demystify the secrets behind Technology, Marketing, Mobile and Internet. He is a Writer by passion, Marketer by choice and Entrepreneur by compulsion. Follow him on Twitter here: @_mohul

Foreign Firms Granted Full Access To Classified Aadhaar Data! RTI Reply Reveals




With best wishes,
from                    
                                             Click for Mumbai, IndiaForecast
Rahul,
Owner - The CYBUGLE & 60seconds
And Stock market group - TRADESMART

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Posted by: Rahul <bruntno1@yahoo.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

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[rti4empowerment] NPTEL - Short term courses for everyone certified by IITs

 

Note down this site

NPTEL is an acronym for National programme on technology enhanced learning which is an initiative by 7 Indian Institutes of Technology IIT Bombay Delhi Guwahati Kanpur Kharagpur Madras and Roorkee and Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.

NPTEL as a project originated from many deliberations between IIT Indian Institutes of Management and Carnegie Mellon University during the year 1999 2 mm 3.

They have created contents for more than 100 courses as web based supplements or video courses each of which has a duration of 40 hours.

Content for these courses are based on the model curriculum suggested by All India Council for Technical Education.


Do take a look at this website and go through the different courses offered by them.

They have courses ranging from 4 weeks to 8 weeks to a maximum of 12 weeks.

Last date for enrollment was 29th January 2018 (now extended till 12th February 2018) for the exams which are to be held in April 2018.
 
You can pay the registration fee on 7th March.

Cost is nominal around 1100 rupees per module.

They have courses related to Engineering especially the core engineering branches of civil computer science electrical electronics and communication and mechanical.

There is no age limit and this course can be done by students who are in 11 right up to those who are in the final year engineering and architecture.

Even if you are a working professional you can still do this courses to add on to your resume.

Do spread this message among students especially those who are now in 11th and are preparing for their SATs in the US


All the best, 👍


With best wishes,
from                    
                                             Click for Mumbai, IndiaForecast
Rahul,
Owner - The CYBUGLE & 60seconds
And Stock market group - TRADESMART

__._,_.___

Posted by: Rahul <bruntno1@yahoo.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

Have you tried the highest rated email app?
With 4.5 stars in iTunes, the Yahoo Mail app is the highest rated email app on the market. What are you waiting for? Now you can access all your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.


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[rti4empowerment] SHOCKING! Aadhaar gives OUR personal info to foreign firms

 

SHOCKING! Aadhaar gives OUR personal info to foreign firms

February 08, 2018 08:36 IST
'The most valuable personal sensitive information of present and future citizens has been made available to foreign data firms and governments and non-State actors for all time to come,' says Gopal Krishna.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

Contrary to the claim by Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister in charge of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), in his article Aadhaar is a game-changer for India in the Hindustan Times (external link), Unique Identification (UID)/Aadhaar number has become an important technological instrument to empower the rich and to further impoverish and to cruelly oppress the poor.

It is subverting the most important objective of the Constitution of India: Fostering equality of status and of opportunity and to promote among them all fraternity and assuring the dignity of the individual.

 

UID/Aadhaar is fostering biometric and digital exclusion and financial exclusion.

The numerous testimonies of victims of UID/Aadhaar in this regard are available in the public domain. The same has been submitted to the Supreme Court. It is structurally disempowering the common Indian through its assault on citizenship through biometric identification of residents.

Out of nearly 130 crore Indians, some 119 crore Indians and other residents of India have been made vulnerable to non-State actors, foreign States and their domestic collaborators because their most personal sensitive data, the world's most valuable resource, has been parked with foreign data firms and governments through contract agreements between UIDAI and ungovernable technology companies like Accenture, Safran Group and Ernst & Young.

This information has come to light due to replies received under Right to Information Act.

There is no transparency about how much money these companies are making from the data assets of Indians to the detriment of India's supreme interest.

This initiative of the world's largest biometric-digital Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) of UID/Aadhaar numbers has been bulldozed down people's throats by Machiavellian deceit, coercion and breach of trust.

CIDR has dwarfed the stature of Indian citizens by exposing them and the coming generations to an unscientific experiment. It has turned Indians into guinea pigs for clinical trials in labs.

One needs to understand the disempowerment of a poor farmer, a serving soldier, a pensioner, a student, an old woman, a child and the family of Santoshi Kumari who have been deprived of their citizens' entitlements because of CIDR.

With the oppressive linking of UID/Aadhaar of Indians, banks are exerting extraneous influence like money-lenders of old times.

The replies under the RTI Act have revealed that more than 99.99 percent Indians had pre-existing identity proof prior to the proposal of UID/Aadhaar.

It is apparent that it was a lame excuse to pursue this project whose total estimated budget has not been disclosed even after nine years of UIDAI's existence.

It is ridiculous to claim savings without disclosing the total cost of the project. The replies under RTI Act have shown that this project is a 'guaranteed revenue flow' for foreign and domestic private firms, which tantamount to squandering taxpayers' money.

In fact, in an unbelievingly strange situation, Indians are being made to part with their most valuable resource to these companies and they are also being made to pay for it at the rate of Rs 2.75/per enrolment and for each de-duplication forever.

In an exercise of irrationality of the worst order, value of digital transactions using UID/Aadhaar is being presented as savings due to the project.

All such claims of savings are an exercise in puffery. It has come to light and has been admitted that the World Bank study that refers to 'savings' from the project is based on a flawed footnote in its study.

Isn't such propaganda and misinformation campaign a cause of gnawing worry?

The most valuable personal sensitive information of present and future citizens has been made available to foreign data firms and governments and non-State actors for all time to come.

It is a cause of grave worry. In the face of documentary proof, the government's assurances ring as hollow as their words of consolation after every institutional disaster.

The CIDR of the UID/Aadhaar project continued without legislative approval from January 28, 2009, till September 12, 2016, without any backing of a parliamentary law even after the arrival of the BJP-led government in May 2014.

The first thing this government did was to act contrary to the democratic mandate against the UID/Aadhaar project. The Narendra D Modi-led alliance won an electoral victory by promising to scrap the biometric ID project.

Barack Obama and David Cameron too had made a similar promise. Both fulfilled their electoral promise of abandoning the biometric ID project of their predecessors, but Modi has gone against his own promise and betrayed the electoral mandate.

The cover of a Money Bill with which UID/Aadhaar was draped stood exposed and uncovered in the Rajya Sabha.

Notably, the Aadhaar Act came into force after more than 100 crore residents of India have been made naked without the protection of any legislative cover.

This project has been pursued by the BJP-led government under the presumption that the Right to Privacy is not a part of the Right to Life and Personal Liberty.

The Supreme Court's unanimous verdict of August 24, 2017, debunked this foundational basis of the project.

The Aadhaar Act and the project are in manifest contravention of the Right to Life, Personal Liberty and Privacy.

UIDAI's CIDR database of UID/Aadhaar numbers facilitates profiling of individuals utilising technology in the most imaginative ways.

The European Union regulation on data privacy defines 'profiling' as any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements.

Such profiling can result in discrimination based on religion, ethnicity and caste. This has been noted in the Supreme Court's verdict on the Right to Privacy, which dismissed the government's submissions in this regard.

It is bizarre to witness the spectacle of the minister in charge of UIDAI paying insincere obeisance to the Supreme Court's verdict on the Right to Privacy, but continuing to parrot arguments which have been rejected and buried by the Court.

The minister contends that because citizens have shared their details with official agencies on social media, smart phones etc on different occasions without any objection, they should not raise 'serious objections relating to identity verification'.

The Court's verdict reads: 'If the individual permits someone to enter the house it does not mean that others can enter the house', implying that if information has been shared with one entity it does not create any compelling legal logic to share it with other entities too.

It further observed, '... if the posting on social media Web sites is meant only for a certain audience, which is possible as per tools available, then it cannot be said that all and sundry in public have a right to somehow access that information and make use of it'.

Rejecting the government's proposition, the Court's observation reads: 'Users of wearable devices and social media networks may not conceive of themselves as having volunteered data, but their activities of use and engagement result in the generation of vast amounts of data about individual lifestyles, choices and preferences'.

The Court's verdict cites Yvonne McDermott's paper, Conceptualizing the right to data protection in an era of Big Data, that speaks about the quantified self.

The paper underlines that 'The rise in the so-called 'quantified self', or the self-tracking of biological, environmental, physical, or behavioural information through tracking devices, Internet-of-things devices, social network data and other means may result in information being gathered not just about the individual user, but about people around them as well.'

'Thus, a solely consent-based model does not entirely ensure the protection of one's data, especially when data collected for one purpose can be repurposed for another.'

It is abundantly clear that the minister's argument has not been found acceptable by the Court because it is not rational to argue that just because someone has opened the windows of his house it does not create any sane logic to contend that he must open the doors of his house as well.

Giving one's digital arm for a handshake does not create any reasonable compulsion to surrender one's vital personal sensitive assets to UIDAI whose umbilical cord is linked to foreign firms and governments who have grabbed the citizens' database.

Under the garb of 'innovation' in the digital economy, the privacy of future Presidents, prime ministers, legislators, judges, soldiers, intelligence personnel besides citizens cannot be allowed to be killed and allow national security to be compromised for good.

By the government's own admission in the Supreme Court, it is clear that as far as UID/Aadhaar is concerned the proposed safety valves like virtual ID etc and the Data Protection Law Framework Committee's report after nine years of UIDAI's existence are stale, dated. cheques.

UID/Aadhaar creates a biometric-digital identity that subordinates the citizens' identity and makes her/him a subject and a modern-day slave.

It takes away the right of an individual to exercise control over his personal data and to be able to control her/his own life including his right to control his existence on the Internet.

This project provides the structural technique by which every person is being profiled to the nth extent for all and sundry to know using both demographic and biometric information.

As per the Aadhaar Act, UIDAI is empowered to collect voice samples and DNA profiles as well which will consequent into promotion of genetic determinism and biometric casteism akin to Eugenic thinking. Coincidentally, the official forms for collecting DNA profiles seek details about caste too.

The manifesto of biometric identification promoters will read like the 1,500 page regressive manifesto titled '2083: A European Declaration of Independence' brought out by the Norwegian gunman and neo-crusader, Anders Behring Breivik, who carried out the heinous attacks on his fellow citizens.

It refers to the word 'identity' over 100 times, 'unique' over 40 times and 'identification' over 10 times.

There is reference to 'State-issued identity cards', 'converts' identity cards', 'identification card', 'fingerprints', 'DNA' etc as well in this manifesto.

Biometric profiling of any sort is dehumanising.

These words and their imports merit attention in order to safeguard the natural rights of present and future generation of citizens which faces an unprecedented onslaught from unregulated and ungovernable biometric and digital technology vendors.

The abandonment of UID/Aadhaar like ID projects in countries like the US, the UK, Australia, China, France and Germany and their failure in African countries create a logical compulsion for India to heed the decision of these countries.

Gopal Krishna is a public policy and law researcher, and convener, Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties who had appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that examined the Aadhaar Bill, 2010 and trashed it.
He is also editor of www.toxicswatch.org

Gopal Krishna





With best wishes,
from                    
                                             Click for Mumbai, IndiaForecast
Rahul,
Owner - The CYBUGLE & 60seconds
And Stock market group - TRADESMART

__._,_.___

Posted by: Rahul <bruntno1@yahoo.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

Have you tried the highest rated email app?
With 4.5 stars in iTunes, the Yahoo Mail app is the highest rated email app on the market. What are you waiting for? Now you can access all your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.


.

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