Posted 9:55 AM by Melissa
Well it's another Monday morning and everyone's back in the habit. There is only three weeks of school left, then a week of finals of course(can't forget about those). I have a trig quiz in recitation shortly so I should be studying but .....hey i dont know. I have three tests next week, Monday-Trig, Tuesday-Pre-cal and Wednesday- Chemistry. Doesn't it all sound so exciting. And a hypertext I need to be working on for our essay 2. I need to register for the fall but it sucks that I can't do htat since it goes by the amount of hours you have earned, but by that time all the classes I want will be filled or have crappy times left. I have my schedule planned so that I have no class on Friday,(hopefully I'll get it), but the downfall is that I will have an 8:00am class on Tues/Thurs. I think it's a fair trade. But I've never had a class that early before, I've never had a class earlier than 11:00am, lol. Well at least I can go back home and sleep afterwards.

Let's see.....I'm moving to another apartment in the fall. I'm kind of excited but I don't feel like moving all my stuff. I am looking for someone to sublease my apartment for the summer!!! I live in Jefferson Pointe, so if your interested let me know.

This weekend three of my friends came from Gainesville to see me. We had a good time. I cooked curry shrimp, you know us Jamaicans curry everything. I think it came out pretty well being it was my first time. I was looking for some kind of cooking class to take in the fall but I don't know if they offer that here at FSU. I need a job for th esummer. (I need alot of things, huh? lol) Well i think im gonna take a practice quiz now. I talk to you(or am I talking to myself -:-)) later.

Posted 6:29 PM by Melissa
Bill aims to ban e-mail snooping Another privacy issue is employers versus employees. Do employers have the right to monitor their employees email messages adn other private information on the job. Some may argue that since the email or text message is done on the job, the employer does have soem right to know what is going on.

A bill has been introduced "to make it illegal for employers to read private messages." I don't know what to think of this, it seems that they have been looking in employees email already. As a safety precaution I think it is ok for employers to view their employees messages, private or not. If it's that personal tha tyou don't want your boss to read it then maybe you should send it from home, but then again that privacy can not be guaranteed either.

Presently, there are laws that prohibit employers from reading letters of employees and they can't listen to their phone calls either, which are great measures to atleast keep some privacy. I guess privacy in email messages is a great benefit for employees but we all are going to have to give up some kind of privacy to get the security that we not only want but need.

I guess employers are worried that their workers aren't working at working but their are other ways to monitor that. Instead of screeing their emails make sure the tasks that they are supposed to be doing get done. I don't see why employers would want to read private messages unless the employee is a suspect or poses a threat to the company or this country.

Posted 5:11 PM by Melissa
Bush order covers Internet secrets


In this order Bush "said that information that already had been declassified and released to the public could be reclassified by a federal agency," this replaces the 1995 executive order made by Clinton. Alot of people don't understand why the old order needed to be rewritten. Bush's decision gives the U.S. Justice Department, which defends agency classification decisions in court, more leeway in fighting such lawsuits.

It seems that Bush is making decisions and passing laws no matter what other people think of if it is even necessary at all. I'm not completely sure of how is whole process works when he wants a law to be passed but I guess everyone else on his team think that it's the right measure to take also.

Bush is doing everything it takes to get as much cooperation even if not willingly to get the power that he wants to have information easily accesible to law enforcement officials. "Clinton's 1995 order said one of the seven categories of information that could be classified was: "vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, projects or plans relating to the national security." Under Bush's order, that definition has been expanded to: "vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, infrastructures, projects, plans or protection services relating to the national security, which includes defense against transnational terrorism." Is Bush's interest's really for the American people? For the most part its been reported that the "previous practice would have permitted much of the same thing."

Posted 4:20 PM by Melissa
In the article Can Security, Privacy Coexist? Scot Peterson talks about America being more or less secure since Septembet 11. If September 11, is the reason we are so worried about secutiry what exactly was being done before.

He went to the Twelfth Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy and was talking about how alot of people can go on day to day without thinking abotu the events of 9/11. But if you work with technology then you still see its effects today. I think that anyone who uses the computer or internet see the effects of 9/11. One obvious change is that security is getting tighter, or is it?

We are all looking for ways to be secure from whatever is out there to get us. In an effort to protect us the question still remains how can the government protect us without infringing on our fourth amendment right. This once again leads me to think that can we really have both security and privacy? It seems like one has to give.

"The issue that really raised hackles at the conference was the USAPatriot Act of last fall, which gives law enforcement officials new,broad authority to snoop on citizens and suspected terrorists but which some said is an exercise in grabbing more power." Arguments have been made that law enforcement officials had the sufficient power to gather the informaiotn that they needed to prevent the attacks of 9/11.

I am wondering if they had the power before why didn't they try to do somehting then. Why is it that they are trying to pry into innocent citzen's lives now. The goal now is trying to merge privacy and security and not have them as opposites.

Posted 2:24 PM by Melissa
The FSU library database was pretty good at finding sources for my paper. I used the Academic Universe, which took me to Lexus Nexis and I was able to find information there.

Though the article Ottawa's planned Big Brother should be dissected
is obviously not from an American newspaper it doesn't mean that other people aren't being faced with the same privacy issues by their government. Even in Canada the government is using the terrorist Osama bin Laden to gain more rights into it's people's privacy.

Basically, "the government wants to make it a legal requirement for telephone, wireless and Internet service providers to give law-enforcement authorities a technical way to access all telecommunications traffic that buzzes through their networks." The government would gain infromation through something like apremanent wire tap. It's kind of weird to see another country going through the same thign that we are in AMerica. All forms of online or wirless communication will essentially be monotored by an intelligence agent who has a court order.

I guess to have the best security we have to give up some privacy. Security is a big issue and we all want to be secure from anythin but are we willing to do what it takes to get there. Privacy will be infringed on to get to a point where will have a stable and effective security.

The problem seems to be that they are hoping to monitor everyone in hopes of finding a suspecting lead and following him. Which is different than havign a suspect and following his whereabouts. I would definitely agree that he should have no privacy is there evidence that he/she is a threat to society.