Loss of Privacy

Keeping you informed on recent losses to privacy and civil rights worldwide.

Last week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Forces conducted hearings entitled Oversight: The Law of Armed Conflict, the Use of Military Force, and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force in which the Pentagon admitted that we are in an endless war against terrorism.

Senator Angus King tells the Pentagon officials that they have essentially rewritten the constitution.

Pentagon officials today claimed President Obama and future presidents have the power to send troops anywhere in the world to fight groups linked to al-Qaeda, based in part on the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed by Congress days after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Speaking at the first Senate hearing on rewriting the AUMF, Pentagon officials specifically said troops could be sent to Syria, Yemen and the Congo without new congressional authorization. Michael Sheehan, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, predicted the war against al-Qaeda would last at least 10 to 20 more years. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) challenged the Pentagon’s interpretation of the Constitution and that the entire world is a battlefield. “This is the most astounding and most astoundingly disturbing hearing I’ve been to since I’ve been here. You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution here today,” King said. “You guys have invented this term ‘associated forces’ that’s nowhere in this document. … It’s the justification for everything, and it renders the war powers of Congress null and void.”

Read more at Common Dreams and Democracy Now!

TwitterRedditShare

flattr this!

larry page

Larry Page has announced that Americans should stop worrying over keeping their medical records private. He claims that the only legitimate reason not to disclose the information is fear of being denied medical insurance. Unfortunately, Page lives in a world unlike 99% of Americans who have everything to fear if their private medical information was released.

“At least in my case I feel I should have done it sooner and I’m not sure that answer isn’t true for most people, so I ask why are people so focused on keeping your medical history private?”

Page doesn’t have to worry about his employer firing him if they find out about medical ailments that he may have. For most Americans, once an employer finds out that you’re going to cost them a lot of money or your illness/ailment might one day prevent you from performing your job, you will be let go. They won’t give you a reason. They don’t have to. But, if they know your medical condition, they will find a reason.

The Google CEO guessed most people are guarded about their medical history because of insurance reasons.

“You’re very worried that you’re going to be denied insurance. That makes no sense, so maybe we should change the rules around insurance so that they have to insure people,” he said to a round of applause.

The ACA is already doing this. You’re put into a higher risk pool and, starting next year, everyone must have health insurance and no one can be denied. Maybe Page, and the entire room that applauded, need to pay more attention to the news.

Page spoke of a frustration with laws that were preventing Google from doing some experiments. Health records was just one such area where legal restrictions ultimately led to the closure of its Google Health service.

“We haven’t built mechanisms to allow experimentation. There are many things, exciting things that you could do that you just can’t do because they are illegal or they are not allowed by regulation. And that makes sense, we don’t want our world to change too fast,” he said.

Many people don’t want to discuss their medical history. It really is no one else’s business and they aren’t going to help Page and Google to open that up to scrutiny because he has an agenda and wants to conduct experiments.

Page’s condition is minor when it comes to revealing an illness. Not many people would want the world to know that they only have one testicle, have had an abortion, are infertile, have diabetes, herpes, AIDS, a family history of heart disease, Chron’s disease, mental illness, or any other host of conditions that the general public does not need to know. Many of these conditions could put a person’s employment at risk as well as making it difficult to find adequate housing.

Page admits that he doesn’t fully understand the situation. So, instead of getting up in front of the media and blurting out whatever comes to mind, he should have researched his position ahead of time. His ignorance of the situation is clear, yet he doesn’t care because he doesn’t have to worry about his own private medical situation. HIPAA may not be perfect, but it’s the best thing Americans have to protect their medical privacy. It shouldn’t be so easy to obtain because someone has an agenda and thinks everyone should think as he does.

Picture Source.

TwitterRedditShare

flattr this!

The TrackingPoint rifle is now available for purchase. A novice shooter can hit a target at 500 yards away. Surely, nothing will ever go wrong with this weapon.

Networked Tracking Scope

Heads Up Display

“Think of it like a smart rifle. You have a smart car; you got a smartphone; well, now we have a smart rifle,” says company President Jason Schauble. He says the TrackingPoint system was built for hunters and target shooters, especially a younger generation that embraces social media.

Except no one is using their smart car or smart car to kill people intentionally. The rifle is a weapon that kills people. That’s it’s purpose. We shouldn’t be making killing people easier.

Schauble says because the company sells directly — instead of going through gun dealers — it knows who its customers are and will vet them. And he says there’s a key feature that prevents anyone other than the registered owner from utilizing the gun’s capabilities.

Many people can pass being “vetted” and still use the weapon against other people. Just because a person passes your tests today doesn’t mean they will pass them a year from now.

“It has a password protection on the scope. When a user stores it, he can password protect the scope that takes the advanced functionality out. So the gun will still operate as a firearm itself, but you cannot do the tag/track/exact, the long range, the technology-driven precision-guided firearm piece without entering that pass code,” he says.

While that’s a nice feature, if a person purchases the rifle with the intention to kill other people, password protections are a moot point.

TwitterRedditShare

flattr this!

TwitterRedditShare

flattr this!

From 60 minutes:

You can read more here and watch the broadcast of the episode 19 May 2013 on CBS.

TwitterRedditShare

flattr this!