Sandwiched within a long list of issues on a crowded ballot, Amendment 6 is emerging as a multi-million dollar fight touching abortion, parental rights and privacy protections now guaranteed in the Florida Constitution.
privacy
Anti-Terror “Fusion Centers” Like Central Florida’s Slammed as Ineffective and Intrusive
A two-year Senate investigation finds that Department of Homeland Security efforts to engage state and local intelligence “fusion centers”–six of which are set up in Florida, including one in central Florida–has not yielded significant useful information to support federal counterterrorism intelligence efforts.
From Red Lights to School Buses: Florida Looks For Traffic Spy Cameras’ Next Perch
Despite having by far the safest record of any mode of transportation, including in Flagler, Florida school officials are looking to add spy-and-snap cameras on school buses similar to red-light cameras at Palm Coast and other cities’ intersections. School districts would reap most of the cash benefits from fines.
Using Straw Man, Palm Coast Ridicules County’s Opposition to Red-Light Cameras
Rather than address questions raised by County Commission Chairman Barbara Revels, the Palm Coast Council invented a claim that the county wanted to enable law-breaking, unsafe drivers, and dismissed Revels’s request to reconsider installing spy cameras on State Road 100.
DCF Defends Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients
The head of the state welfare agency is asking a court to throw out a challenge to the state law requiring drug testing of public assistance recipients, which could allow the program to restart.
Go Ahead, Steal His Email:
Florida Court Rules It’s Not Cyberstalking
The First Circuit Court of Appeal found that a wife stealing her husband’s email and locking him out of his own account did not amount either to cyberstalking or to a form of domestic violence. The case involves Michael and Cheryl Young of Alachua County.
Without Evidence But Plenty of Cash, Palm Coast Approves 52 Spy Cameras, Up from 10
The Palm Coast City Council’s agreement to increase the city’s traffic spy cameras to up to 52 is backed by no crash data and no scientific evidence that the 10 existing cameras improve safety, but Palm Coast stands to make up to $437,000 a year from the new scheme.
Smart-Phone Canvassing: Is Your Neighbor A Democrat? Obama Has an App for That.
![For each targeted address, the app displays the first name, age and gender of the voter or voters who live there: "Lori C., 58 F, Democrat." All this is public information, which campaigns have long given to volunteers. But you no longer have to schedule a visit to a field office and wait for a staffer to hand you a clipboard and a printed-out list of addresses. With the Obama app, getting a glimpse of your neighbor's political affiliation can take seconds. While The New York Times dubbed the app "the science-fiction dream of political operatives," some of the voters who appear in the app are less enthusiastic about it. "I do think it's something useful for them, but it's also creepy," said Lori Carena, 58, a long-time Brooklyn resident, when she was shown the app. "My neighbors across the street can know that I'm a Democrat. I'm not sure I like that." It's unclear if the app displays all registered Democrats who live in a certain area, or only a subset of voters President Obama's campaign is trying to reach. Asked about the privacy aspects of the new app, a spokesperson for the Obama campaign wrote that "anyone familiar with the political process in America knows this information about registered voters is available and easily accessible to the public." The information included in the app has "traditionally been available to anyone who walks into a campaign field office," said the spokesperson, who declined to be named. While the app makes voter information instantly available, it displays only a small cluster of addresses at a time. It has built-in mechanisms to detect when people are misusing the data, "such as people submitting way too many voter contacts in a short period of time," the spokesman said. "The campaign is strongly committed to ensuring the safety and privacy of the public and follows up with appropriate action, including alerting appropriate authorities if necessary, in any case of abuse or inappropriate behavior," said the spokesperson. "Any voter who requests not to be contacted again is immediately removed from any provided to volunteers." This isn't the first time campaigns have released digital tools that make voter information freely available. Both the Obama and Romney campaigns currently have online calling tools that give anyone who registers for their websites the names and phone numbers of voters to contact. In 2008, the Obama campaign's "Neighbor to Neighbor" program allowed volunteers to use their home computers to print out lists of names and addresses to contact. Two years later, the Democratic group Organizing for America, formed to keep mobilizing the president's supporters after Obama was elected, released a mobile app that was in some ways a prototype of Obama's new app. Volunteers in the 2010 midterm elections could use their mobile phones to map voters in their immediate vicinity and then send in responses from the voters they had contacted, which eliminated the need for clipboards and printed lists. Natalie Foster, who was the new media director of Organizing for America, said the tools used in 2010 had built-in privacy limits, "where you are only given a certain number of voters that you could conceivably canvass. If somebody goes above that limit, or is just obviously clicking a button over or over, we'll just shut it down." Privacy "was definitely a consideration and something that was focused on, to make sure people aren't just going in and downloading a lot of data," said Joshua Hendler, the former director of technology for Organizing for America. Foster, who is now the CEO of the economic advocacy group Rebuild the Dream, and Hendler, who now works for PR firm Hill and Knowlton Strategies, said that making voter information more open makes the political process more democratic, because it lowers the barrier for people to get involved in political campaigns. Shaun Dakin, a voter privacy advocate and longtime critic of political robocalling, flagged the Obama app last week as a "total privacy fail." Dakin, who criticized the Obama campaign's 2008 Neighbor to Neighbor program on similar grounds, said voters should have the right to opt out of being contacted by political campaigns. He also questioned why the Obama app included the ages of nearby voters, another piece of information that people might not want to have made public. Lori Carena, the Brooklyn voter, said she doesn't object to having canvassers knock on her door. In fact, she said she wishes it happened more often in New York, a state that's such a Democratic stronghold she feels the campaign isn't interested in hearing her concerns. Asked what she feels is the difference between the traditional way of canvassing — with voter names and addresses on a printed-out list — and the new mobile app, she said, "Well, I just don't get all this new stuff with computers and apps. That's probably more creepy to me." Even low-tech tools used to distribute voter data can upset some voters. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported this June that a liberal group in Wisconsin was sending fliers to voters which included a list of their neighbors and whether they had voted in 2008 and 2010. The fliers encouraged recipients to help get out the vote for the recall election of Gov. Scott Walker. Some voters were angry that their names and addresses were being distributed publicly. "I think this is invasion of my privacy and every other woman's privacy. It's like — 'Here, this is where all the women are,'" one woman told the Journal Sentinel. Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard law professor and the co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, said the Obama app represented a significant shift. While voter data has been "technically public," it is usually accessed only by political campaigns and companies that sell consumer data. He said it was "heartening" that the app makes data available to citizens who want to talk to their neighbors about their political choices. "The purpose of this app may be Democrats visiting Democrats. I can see apps where you ask Republicans to visit Democrats and Democrats to visit Republicans." "If we're comfortable enough to have [this information] go into the maw of big data processors, both political and otherwise, it seems consistent for neighbors to talk to neighbors over it," he said. "Much of our feelings around privacy are driven by what you might call status-quo-ism," he said, so many people may feel that the app is creepy simply because it represents something new. Interested to learn more about how political groups are using your personal information? See our reporting on tailored campaign emails and the new wave of targeted online ads.](https://flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/obama-app.jpg)
The Obama for America app, “the science-fiction dream of political operatives,” is turning canvassing on its head as public information long available no longer has to scheduled through a visit to a field office and waits for staffers to hand volunteers clipboards and a printed-out lists of addresses.
Hedging Privacy Concerns, Hospitals Shop for Patients on Facebook and Google
A growing number of hospitals are taking their advertising campaigns to Facebook, Google and other websites as more see the value of highly targeted campaigns that enable them to track results. Social media users may be unnerved by being tracked and followed by information they’ve searched for.
Cops Spying on Your Cell Phone: Warrantless, Routine, and With Providers’ Complicity
Privacy activists hold that cops’ tracking of cell phones require a search warrant to be constitutional. But the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on the issue, and Congress has yet to pass a law addressing it.
Red-Light Camera Ticket Revenue:
Palm Coast, 14%, Private Company, 86%
American Traffic Solutions, which runs Palm Coast’s red-light traffic cameras, will make up to $4,250 per camera per month, while Palm Coast makes just $700. Still, the Palm Coast City Council is ready to sign a seven-year deal.
Facebook, First Amendment Rights and Employers’ Censors: The New Rules
Facebook’s big brothers: As employers develop policies to restrict what employees post on their personal Facebook pages, the federal labor board (NLRB) has found that employees fired or disciplined had engaged in “protected concerted activity” and were punished illegally.
Rick Scott’s Obsession With Other People’s Urine
Anyone other than my doctor who’d ask me to pee in a cup isn’t just out of line. He’d be out of his mind. Yet an entire industry thrives on such cup-holders, Gov. Rick Scott among them, and millions of Americans are not only complying with the docility of circus animals. They’re encouraging the indignity and asking for more.
Federal Judge Rules Gov. Rick Scott’s Random Drug-Testing of State Workers Unconstitutional
Federal District Judge Ursula Ungaro found that Scott’s order requiring drug tests violates the Fourth Amendment, as there is no “compelling need for testing.” Scott said he’d appeal the ruling.
Anti-Abortion Religious Groups Launch Campaign to Abolish Privacy Rights for Teens
The “Yes on 6” anti-abortion campaign by religious groups pushes for passage of proposed constitutional amendment 6 on this fall’s ballot, and would forbid Medicaid dollars paying for poorer people’s abortions.
Your Password, Please: When a Job Interview Includes Demands for Facebook Pages
In a society where privacy is constantly eroding, recent efforts by some employers to pry into Facebook pages to investigate job applicants should be resisted as an unwarranted intrusion on personal freedom and dignity.
Florida House Passes Sweeping Abortion Restrictions, Including 24-Hour Waiting Period
The bill requires all abortion clinics to be owned and operated by a doctor (only one of Florida’s 68 clinics fits the bill) and presumes, with little scientific evidence, that pain for the fetus begins at 20 weeks.
Roe Back: Florida Would Ban Abortions After 20 Weeks and Require 24-Hr Waiting Periods
A Republican-dominated House subcommittee approved three anti-abortion bills in party-line votes Tuesday, after testimony and debate that reflected the country’s deep divide over abortion.
In Boon to Palm Coast, Appeals Court Rules Traffic Spy-Cams Legal Even Without State Law
South Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals, in a divided ruling, declares red-light cameras legal under cities’ home rule powers. A dissent calls the majority ruling at odds with state law. The decision may influence a proposal to revisit traffic cameras at the Legislature in the coming session.
Palm Coast Opts to Keep Red-Light Cameras On Despite Legal Cautions and Dearth of Evidence
Despite little money generated from red-light cameras, potential legal challenges and no hard evidence that the cameras improve safety, the Palm Coast City Council decided to stick with its 10 spy-and-snap cameras for now.
Rick Scott Opposes Electronic Health Databases Designed to Speed Up Patient Care
Florida’s Health Information Exchange, a national pioneer, replaces paper with electronic records, speeding up patient care and information exchanges between health providers. Rick Scott opposes it, claiming it doesn’t save money and breaches privacy.
Room for Debate: Should Your Child Be on Facebook?
Facebook privacy for adults is hard enough to keep up with. For children and teens, keeping things private on Facebook is a seemingly intentional maze–and a marketer and advertiser’s dream.
When Cops Track Your Cell Calls and Location On Public Roads: No Expectation of Privacy
Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeals Wednesday ruled that tracking a drug dealer through his cell phone as he traveled across the state was legal as long as he did not go onto private property.
Florida Legislature Redrawing Abortion Rules, Targeting Women, Physicians and US Law
The House approved a slew of bills that would force women to submit to ultrasounds before an abortion, broaden parental notification when minors are seeking an abortion, and require physicians to own abortion clinics, among other bills.
Florida Legislators’ Creepy Uterus Obsession
Florida lawmakers want to force women seeking an abortion in the second trimester to watch an ultrasound of their fetus first. It’s a back-alley assault on women’s privacy and abortion rights.
Parental Report Cards: Florida Lawmaker Wants Teachers Grading Your Parenting Skills
Kelli Stargel, Republican of Lakeland, thinks parents should be graded on their child’s preparedness as one way to address parental involvement and student underachievement. The proposal leaves economic and social issues mute.
Rick Scott Orders State Employees Randomly Drug-Tested Often, Like Welfare Recipients
Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order requiring drug testing, and compared the testing of employees to the drug-testing of welfare recipients, a proposals lawmakers also approved unanimously in a Senate committee Tuesday.
Florida Court Rules Pregnant Woman’s Rights Override Presumptions for the Unborn
In a circuit court decisions with wide implications about the rights of a fetus, a judge ruled a woman had the right to decline hospitalization against doctors’ concerns over her pregnancy.
They’re Watching You: Palm Coast Council Turned on by Spy Cameras at Public Parks
City employees can spy on park-goers from ordinary computers networked to the six cameras installed at the park.
Illegal for 4 Years, Palm Coast’s Red-Light Cameras to Comply With State Law; Cash Dips
State law removes the red-light cameras’ cash-cow incentive and forces cities to abide by uniform state standards.