African Feminism celebrated during Women’s History Month

This year, several Black women’s groups celebrated Women’s History Month with events promoting programs of feminist activism. Barnard College hosted an all-day African Women’s Rights and Resistance Conference on continuing developments in African women’s feminist work. A documentary explored the suffrage movement in the Bahamas and the need to include women’s rights in that island nation’s constitution. And Black Women’s Blueprint took the rape of Black women in the United States to the United Nations.

The conference featured Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee who earned global acclaim for her role in leading the mass movement for peace and women’s safety that ended the Liberian 14-year civil war.

THE VULCAN Society: NYC fire department settles discrimination lawsuit

THE VULCAN Society of black firefighters

The court battle began in 2007, when the United States Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the department after the Vulcan Society complained that the entrance exams used by the department were biased against minority applicants.

At the time, the department was over 90 percent white and a federal judge ruled that the entrance examination was in violation of civil rights laws and the United States Constitution.
About 1,500 minorities who took New York City fire department entrance exams that were found to be biased will be eligible to receive back pay totaling $98 million, a black firefighters' group that had sued the city over racial discrimination.

The settlement of the 7-year-old case capped a long and arduous legal fight by the group, the Vulcan Society, over diversity in the fire department. In a city where more than half of residents identify with a racial minority group, black firefighters have never made up more than 4 percent of the department's total. 

The issue of whether the city intentionally discriminated against minority applicants to the FDNY was decided in the Vulcans' favor by Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis. But the U.S. Court of Appeals threw out the ruling last year and ordered a retrial before a different judge.

As part of the settlement on Tuesday, [March 18, 2014] the Fire Department agreed to create a chief of diversity and inclusion, who will report directly to the fire commissioner, as well as a diversity advocate who will monitor hiring practices and cadet training for discrimination.

Our Time Press: United States of America and Vulcan Society, Inc. v. City of New York

Microsoft charges the FBI millions for access to user data

Microsoft makes loads of money off things other than Windows and Office. You probably know about the millions they make from other companies selling Android devices, but what about the millions they rake in charging the FBI for access to user data?

Microsoft Says: Come Back with a Warrant, Unless You’re Microsoft

EFF has long argued that law enforcement agencies must get a warrant when they ask Internet companies for the content of their users’ communications. In 2013, as part of our annual Who Has Your Back report, we started awarding stars to companies that require warrants for content. It is now unclear whether Microsoft, one of our inaugural “gold star” companies in that category, is willing to live by its own maxim.

This controversy was brought to light by the arrest of an ex-Microsoft employee named Alex Kibkalo. According to a criminal complaint sworn in a Seattle federal court, Kibkalo stole proprietary information from Microsoft, including its Activation Server Software Development Kit (SDK), and passed the code to a French blogger.

violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, ECPA

Courts do not issue orders authorizing someone to search themselves, since obviously no such order is needed.  So even when we believe we have probable cause, it’s not feasible to ask a court to order us to search ourselves. 

And according to Section 3.5, one of the ways users can violate the agreement and thus give Microsoft “permission” to access their content is to email content that violates the company’s Code of Conduct. Spoiler alert: the Code of Conduct is ridiculously broad.

Ask Dave Taylor and Intel Tech Tips

Ask Dave Taylor

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site. Further, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site. 

Tech Tips

USPS

shirley-chisholm

Sir Tim Berners-Lee: World wide web needs bill of rights

Sir Tim Berners-Lee wants more rights for users of the web

The inventor of the world wide web has marked the 25th anniversary of his creation by calling for a 'Magna Carta' bill of rights to protect its users.

"Are we going to continue on the road and just allow the governments to do more and more and more control - more and more surveillance?

"Or are we going to set up a bunch of values? Are we going to set up something like a Magna Carta for the world wide web and say, actually, now it's so important, so much part of our lives, that it becomes on a level with human rights?"

Sir Tim Berners-Lee: the future web

The Web is 25: 10 things you need to know about the web (including how much it weighs)