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At a conference of the Annual Strategic Data Project (SDP) last year, Common Core "architect" and current president of the “non-profit” College Board, David Coleman, praised the collection of student data via the Common Core State Standards initiative.  Furthermore, he welcomed to that effort members of Barack Obama’s re-election campaign who, Coleman said, would be reaching out, as they did for the campaign, to the “low-hanging fruit,” or low-income and Latino students.In the video below, recorded last May by the Harvard Center for Education Policy Research CEPR, Coleman gave his audience several important pieces of information. First, Coleman admitted, as former...

The launch of the new iPhone 6 late last month set a record for Apple, selling 10-million units in the first three days. In spite of the record-setting sales, it was not long before consumer enthusiasm for the new technology dulled with reports of alleged problems, including a potential for bending if sat on for long periods; a phenomenon quickly dubbed “Bendgate.” The release of the iPhone 6 presented another, more serious problem for a much different demographic: government snoops. Rather than continuing to be the rope in a tug-of-war between consumer privacy and warrantless government requests for consumer data,...

The NSA isn’t the only government agency raising concerns about electronic privacy. Local police departments are coming under similar scrutiny—not only for using spying technology, but for hiding their use from the public. At least 25 police departments now use what is known as “Stingray,” a briefcase-sized box that swallows up cell phone data within a mile radius. More than one in three large police departments are also using license-plate readers, which can record every plate—even on a four-lane highway—from vehicles going at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. […] But the two technologies raise broader questions about...

The NSA and its British counterpart are tapping popular smartphone apps such as Angry Birds to peek into the tremendous amounts of very personal data those bits of software collect -- including age, location, sex and even sexual preferences, according to new reports from the New York Times and The Guardian. Citing confidential documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the reports detail efforts to supplement data collection from cell phone carriers and smartphones by tapping into “leaky” apps themselves. “Some apps, the documents state, can share users' most sensitive information such as sexual orientation – and one app recorded in...

In New York, a bill has been proposed by Democrat Assemblywoman Margaret Markey that would require all public school students to undergo mental health exams, more than once, in order to attend. Loesch points out how this fits into a larger picture that is forming with Common Core requirements and various state legislatures across the country. Schools are collecting information such as parental political affiliations, firearm ownership, religious affiliations, and other forms of data mining. She also poses the important question of who would pay for this. Is it going to be yet another financial burden for low and middle...

Progressive Insurance wants its insurance agents to take a 30-day ride-along with its customers. While the agents themselves are not physically in the vehicles, the Progressive “Snapshot” device -- which functions much like a car’s Event Data Recorder, or “EDR” (also known as a “black box”) -- constantly monitors and records every move a driver makes; including how often drivers slam on the brakes, how many miles they drive, and how much time they spend driving at high-risk hours (Midnight to 4:00 AM). Progressive claims collecting such data will save money for “safe-drivers,” but in actuality it is simply a...

(Update: Adding more on opposition to Core, where Duncan spoke) U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents Friday that he found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come from “white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.” Yes, he really said that. But he has said similar things before. What, exactly, is he talking about? In his cheerleading for the controversial Common Core...

America President Obama Channels Lord Cromwell: Great Statesmen Tamper with Packets By John Stanton National Security Writer National Security Advisor Susan Rice — Former US Ambassador to UN Susan Rice (48: center) was appointed by President Obama as the National Security Advisor (NSA) on July 1, 2013. She succeeded Tom Donilon as NSA, the top advisor to the US president on all national secutiry and foreign policies. Glenn Greenwald’s Snowden dossier concerning the American Leviathan’s practice of harvesting, storing and analyzing the information/conversations of its own and the world’s political, military, economic and cultural gate keepers is fascinating. This is...

The Obama administration has been collecting enormous amounts of communications and other data on Americans. The justification which is offered (and which is being accepted on both sides of the aisle) is the need to monitor this information to protect us in the age of modern terrorism. The most credible complaint we hear is that they’re gathering data on their political opposition. The IRS scandal gives weight to this thought. But an overlooked motive will play a pivotal role in 2014: this data-mining effort, in significant part, is a vehicle for getting votes. We’re told that no one is listening...

Notorious RINO and Blind Sheik prosecutor Andrew McCarthy posted this at NationalReview.com’s The Corner yesterday afternoon: What gaineth a president if he wins over knuckle-dragging right-wing loon commentator McCarthy but loses the New York Times? ”The administration has now lost all credibility.” Ouch! Ouch indeed, but if you really need reassurance that President Obama’s thought police are not monitoring your every move, read McCarthy’s longer essay on the NSA program here. McCarthy had reached his conclusion before I posted mine, but I got to the same place before going on air Thursday. The PRISM story followed later in the day,...

How Much Has It Cost Us? I was pondering a possible block diagram or flow chart of the steps and the technology necessary to mine data on this grand scale. Without getting into details, I assert it is very expensive. How much did the electronic collection hardware cost? How much did the data storage hardware cost? How much did the network hardware cost? How much did the network software cost? How much did it cost to create a searchable database? How much did it cost to enter the collected data? How much did it cost to maintain the database? How...

PayPal is making changes to its privacy policy that will go into effect on April 1, 2012. The online payments unit of eBay is also adding extensively to its "Identity Authentication" section that all buyers and sellers must agree to as part of the User Agreement. PayPal said it was making changes to its Customer Identification program "as a result of changes in the law." Somewhat ironically, an alert reader noticed that PayPal users are unable to opt-out of AdChoice, a program that allows PayPal and other eBay entities to share information about visitors' past activities with its partners in...

DOJ to Congress: Make ISPs keep tabs on users By: Tony Romm May 10, 2011 12:05 PM EDT As a new Senate privacy panel considers the data collected by iPhones, Androids and BlackBerrys, the Department of Justice is reminding lawmakers that it needs Internet providers to store more data about their users to help with federal investigations. Current law doesn't require those Internet service providers to "retain any data for any particular length of time," although some already do, said Jason Weinstein, deputy assistant attorney general at the DOJ's Criminal Division. And many wireless companies — which must collect some...

One of the most compelling reasons for the massive government bailout of Wall Street and other large corporations is that they asked for it. The largest of the large Wall Street investment firms begged the government to give them taxpayer funds to avoid 'the biggest crash in American history.' Fannie and Freddie essentially did the same thing. So did General Motors. Of course it would not be appropriate for them to beg for the money for selfish reasons, such as, to save their own skins, which is precisely the real motive for the bailout. The corporate conglomerates had to come...

Google Inc. said an internal investigation has discovered that the roving vans the company uses to create its online mapping services were mistakenly collecting data about websites people were visiting over wireless networks. The Internet giant said it would stop collecting Wi-Fi data from its StreetView vans, which workers drive to capture street images and to locate Wi-Fi networks. The company said it would dispose of the data it had accidentally collected. *snip* "It's now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) Wi-Fi networks, even though we never used that data in...

The controversial immigration bill passed in April by the Senate will do more than legislate illegal immigration — it will track the sources of wages and compensation of all Americans — even the kid who mows your lawn — as well as those workers in the U.S. illegally, the Raleigh Chronicle reported. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, approved by the Senate and headed for debate in the House, makes it illegal to hire anyone for paid wages unless both the employee and the employer fill out new registration requirements, including the employee's work history for the past five...

Earlier this year, Congress launched an investigation into the sale of cell phone records after the FBI and Chicago Police warned that Web-based firms could sell their officers' calling lists to criminals. Now some of the companies under investigation for fraud are telling Congress they have provided personal information to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. On Monday, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., blasted the FBI after learning that Advanced Research Inc. sent Congress a letter saying the firm did work for the bureau. Attorney General Lisa Madigan has sued Advanced Research for allegedly using fraud to obtain Illinois consumers'...

As anyone who knows me can verify I've often railed about people who refer to our government as a Democracy when it is a Republic. It seems that there is a movement, with all of the "each vote counts" hullabaloo and the calls for the removal of the Electoral College, to bring about actual Democracy in America, yet that too won't make a difference. Because, and I hate to burst the bubble of those desiring a Democracy, and it doesn't matter what form of government is in place, we all face a more deadly peril that needs to be taken...

13:21 EDT Wednesday Washingtonpost.com demands stats for entry Jeff Clabaugh Staff Reporter The Washington Post's Web site will began requiring visitors to provide information about themselves to get full access to the paper's online content. Beginning Wednesday, visitors are given the opportunity to voluntarily fill out a short survey. Beginning next week, it'll be mandatory. The three question survey requires a visitor to enter year of birth, sex and ZIP code. The Post says it will require no personally identifiable information from users. Washingtonpost.com CEO Christopher Schroeder says the site will use the information to develop new products and to...

<p>It wasn't a guess, exactly. But Ivory Small, a forecaster for the National Weather Service, was relying on experience as much as science recently when he called for sunny skies across Orange County.</p> <p>The key computer models that form the basis of forecasts disagreed. One said it would rain. The other said it wouldn't.</p>