DATA PRIVACY DAY - January 28

Data Privacy Day (known in Europe as Data Protection Day) is an International Day that is observed every 28 January. The purpose of Data Privacy Day is to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices. It is currently observed in the United States, Canada, India and 47 European countries.

Data Privacy Day's educational initiative originally focused on raising awareness among businesses as well as users about the importance of protecting the privacy of their personal information online, particularly in the context of social networking. The educational focus has expanded over the past four years to include families, consumers and businesses. In addition to its educational initiative, Data Privacy Day promotes events and activities that stimulate the development of technology tools that promote individual control over personally identifiable information; encourage compliance with privacy laws and regulations; and create dialogues among stakeholders interested in advancing data protection and privacy. The international celebration offers many opportunities for collaboration among governments, industry, academia, nonprofits, privacy professionals and educators.

The Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data was opened for signature by the Council of Europe on January 28, 1981. This convention is currently in the process of being updated in order to reflect new legal challenges caused by technological development. The Convention on Cyber crime is also protecting the integrity of data systems and thus of privacy in cyberspace. Privacy including data protection is also protected by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The day was initiated by the Council of Europe to be first held in 2007 as the European Data Protection Day. Two years later, on January 26, 2009, the United States House of Representatives passed House Resolution HR 31 by a vote of 402–0, declaring January 28 National Data Privacy Day. On January 28, 2009, the Senate passed Senate Resolution 25 also recognizing January 28, 2009 as National Data Privacy Day. The United States Senate also recognized Data Privacy Day in 2010 and in 2011.

In response to the increasing levels of data breaches and the global importance of privacy and data security, in 2009 the Online Trust Alliance (OTA) and dozens of global organizations embraced Data Privacy Day as Data Privacy & Protection Day, emphasizing the need to look at the long-term impact to consumers of data collection, use and protection practices. Other organizations including the National Cyber Security Alliance work to coordinate Data Privacy Day activities in the U.S.

 With new data breaches emerging daily, organizations should work together with employees and provide actionable tips and recommendations for improved data protection.

 

Tip 1: Just because you can’t see files on your desktop/laptop computer doesn’t mean they’re gone.

When you drag files to the recycle bin on your computer and/or reformat your hard drive, the data isn’t really gone. Imagine your hard drive is like a library. To find the book you want, you get a reference number from the library’s database – and that leads you to the section of the library where the book can be physically found. But the book still remains in the library and it just becomes a case of using more sophisticated methods to locate it. Secure erasure of your files is the best way to make sure your data is truly destroyed.

Tip 2: Beware of what you’re syncing.

How often do you charge your personal smartphone by plugging a USB cord into your company laptop? How often do you charge your work phone by plugging a USB cord into your personal laptop? Chances are, you do this multiple times a day. Once connected, a lot of devices begin automatically syncing without notice and transferring files between the two. If you’re plugging devices into one another, beware of which files you may be transferring because sensitive information like photos, emails, contacts, usernames and passwords could be hacked and eventually leaked.

Tip 3: Formatting removable media (i.e. SD cards, USB sticks) isn’t the same as erasing data.

External SD cards make it easy and efficient to transfer data from device to another. But it also increases the chances of sensitive information being leaked. Why? Emails, contacts, photos, videos and other files can be saved on the SD card instead of the device itself. So if the SD card is lost or stolen, it can be easily transferred to another device. And formatting removable flash media, such as USB sticks and SD cards, doesn’t actually erase the data forever. So all of those emails, photos, videos and other sensitive files could very well come back to haunt you. To securely erase an external SD card so that the data can never resurface – you first have to remove the SD card and insert it into a computer, which can correctly detect all of its sectors and run software to securely erase everything.

Tip 4: If your smartphone is undergoing repairs, don’t forget to erase data from a loaner device.

Are you experiencing issues with your mobile device? Have you taken your device into the retail store of your carrier or device manufacturer to have it tested and repaired? If this happens, you might be given a temporary “loaner phone” to use until your own phone is fixed, which could take about one week or possibly longer.

In the meantime, you’ve probably been using the loaner phone to save new contacts, photos and videos, as well as send emails from your work email account. But when it’s time to get your own phone back and return the loaner device, make sure all of that data has been permanently erased. And remember, if you have an Android device, a factory reset doesn’t properly erase the data and leaves it exposed and potentially accessible to the next person who uses the loaner device.

Tip 5: When you close an account with a business or website, ask for proof.

When the personal information of over 32 million registered users of dating website Ashley Madison were leaked, the consequences were much more profound. What really stood out in this case was the underlying cause – users had paid for the site’s $20 “Full Delete” program with the understanding that their information would be removed completely from the site. But that didn’t actually happen and users had their data resurface. The lesson here is to always ask for proof that your data has been permanently erased from all locations where it’s being stored.

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardstiennon/2017/01/26/data-privacy-day-easy-tips-to-protect-your-privacy/2/#1a4728bc5dc0

Short Film Links by BODHINI

 Online predators (Malayalam)

https://youtu.be/Vsq95M_kzWY

Online predators (English)

  https://youtu.be/bGclz9YrMqc

Road Trip to Hell (Malayalam)

https://youtu.be/faqmlSHxeT0

Road Trip to Hell (English) 

 https://youtu.be/BAZRxs_wbHA

Road Trip to Hell (Tamil)

https://youtu.be/TC5UKwTvC38

INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY - 27 January

International Holocaust Remembrance Day, is an International Memorial day on 27 January commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the death of an estimated 6 million Jewish people, 200,000 Romani people etc., by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005 during the 42nd plenary session. The resolution came after a special session was held earlier that year on 24 January 2005 during which the United Nations General Assembly marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and the end of the Holocaust.

On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated by the Red Army. Prior to the 60/7 resolution, there had been national days of commemoration, such as Germany's Tag des Gedenkens an die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (The Day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism), established in a proclamation issued by Federal President Roman Herzog on 3 January 1996; and the Holocaust memorial day observed every 27 January since 2001 in the UK. The Holocaust Remembrance Day is also a national event in the United Kingdom and in Italy.

 The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is one of the best literature on Holocaust. 

Perhaps also the most famous personal account of the Holocaust, The Diary of Anne Frank was written in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, between 1942 and 1944. The Franks were a Jewish family originally from Germany, where Anne was born in 1929. Anne’s father, Otto, had come from a wealthy background, but his family’s fortune was lost after World War I.

In 1933 the Franks moved to the Netherlands to escape Nazi persecution. The family lived in relative peace until 1940, when Germany occupied the Netherlands and imposed stringent anti-Semitic laws. These new measures prohibited Jews from riding streetcars, forced Jews to attend separate schools, imposed boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses, and required Jews to wear yellow stars to identify themselves as Jewish. The quality of life of even highly assimilated Jews, like the Franks, became precarious. Within two years after these anti-Semitic laws were imposed, many Jews in the Netherlands were harassed, arrested, and sent to concentration camps where they were herded together and killed. The Franks and other well-connected families were able to heed warning signs in time to make arrangements to go into hiding. This decision put their own lives and the lives of those who cared for them at great risk.

Anne was thrilled to receive a diary on her thirteenth birthday and expressed hope that it would become her one trusted confidant. She immediately began filling her diary with details of her life, including descriptions of her friends, boys she liked, and events at school. Less than one month after she began documenting her relatively carefree childhood, Anne and her family were suddenly forced into hiding.

Margot, Anne’s sixteen-year-old sister, had been “called up” by the Gestapo, Germany’s brutal secret-police force. It was common knowledge among Jews that being called up meant eventually being sent to one of the notorious concentration camps. The Franks were relatively prepared, since they had been sending furniture and provisions to a secret annex in Otto’s office building in anticipation of the Gestapo. The Franks and another family, the van Daans, had arranged to share the annex while some of Otto’s non-Jewish colleagues agreed to look after the families. The Franks later invited one more person, Mr. Dussel, to share their annex.

While they were in hiding, the Franks used a radio to keep up with news from the war, and Anne frequently wrote in her diary about events that caught her attention. These bits—speeches by Winston Churchill; the advances by the British—provide a vivid historical context for Anne’s personal thoughts and feelings.

The Gestapo finally arrested Anne and her family on August 4, 1944. Two secretaries who worked in the building found the books containing Anne’s diary entries strewed over the floor of the annex. The secretaries handed over the diaries to Miep Gies, an assistant in Otto’s office. Miep held the diary, unread, in a desk drawer. When the war ended in 1945, Miep delivered the diary to Otto Frank, who had survived the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Anne and Margot died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in February or March of 1945. Their mother died of hunger and exhaustion in Auschwitz in January 1945. The van Daans and Mr. Dussel also perished in the camps.

Otto Frank knew of his daughter’s wish to become a published writer. Anne originally kept the diary only as a private memoir, but in 1944 she changed her mind after hearing a broadcast by Gerrit Boklestein, a member of the Dutch government in exile. Boklestein declared his hope to publish Dutch people’s accounts of the war, which inspired Anne to think about the possibility of writing for posterity. In addition to her diary, Anne wrote several fables and short stories with an eye toward publishing them someday. She also had thoughts of becoming a journalist.

Mr. Frank reviewed the diary and selected passages, keeping in mind constraints on length and appropriateness for a young-adult audience. He also left out certain passages that he considered unflattering to his late wife and the other residents of the annex. When Mr. Frank died in 1980, the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, inherited the copyright to the diary. A new, complete edition, which restored the passages Mr. Frank left out of the original edition, was published in 1991.

WE THE XPLORICANS, SALUTE OUR NATION - Happy Republic Day!

SAFE CHILDHOODS FOR A SAFE INDIA

By 

Kailash Satyarthi

 

 

Though belated, the decision to ratify two key ILO conventions on child labour makes clear India’s intent of zero tolerance for the exploitation of children

After a long wait of almost two decades, the Government of India finally decided last week to ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour and Convention 138 on Minimum Age of Employment.
I would like to congratulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of Labour and Employment on the firm decision which will soon catapult India from the status of a ‘developing’ nation to a ‘developed’ one. Most of all, I would like to congratulate the children of our country. This decision will have a path-breaking impact on the lives of those who are forced to remain on the margins of society and subject to exploitative conditions. About 4.3 million children wake up to a day of labour and not school. Another 9.8 million are officially out-of-school.
Child labour perpetuates illiteracy and poverty. It is the root cause of organised crimes such as human trafficking, terror and drug mafia. However, today, I feel optimistic and am experiencing a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction similar to what I experienced in 1997.

An African epiphany

I was about 50 kilometres away from Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. The place I had travelled to was a high-risk zone, particularly for foreigners and those travelling alone. I was both, but I made the journey because it was important to identify individuals and organisations to join me for a physical march that would put forth a demand for an international law to ban the worst forms of child labour.
By the time I reached the place, it was already dark and the local NGO had closed for the day. Since I was travelling with my passport and some money, I had to find shelter for the night, especially with men of dubious character stalking the area. Not left with a better alternative, I hid in a thick shade of bushes. When dawn arrived with the sound of the azan (the Muslim call for prayer), I found a way to interact with those returning from prayer. Through signs and actions, I brought them closer to the cause I worked for. A young man who understood a little English helped convey the message. After which, he very kindly dropped me back to the city.
A few months later, closer to the date of the march, I received a letter from the local NGO pledging support. They asked, “What did you do? What did you tell them?”
I learnt that after my interaction all children of the ghetto were put in school and pulled out of labour by those I conversed with. I had found the crux of the march. It was the language of compassion and humanity that would help accelerate the global movement against childhood exploitation.
The march began in January 1998. We traversed 80,000 kilometres across 103 countries and became a strong group of 7.2 million marchers. The Global March Against Child Labour, as it came to be called, culminated finally in Geneva on June 1, 1998 where the ILO conference was in session. We put forward our demand for an international convention to ban the worst forms of child labour. The voice of the marchers was heard and reflected in the draft of the ILO Convention 182.
In June 1999, delegates of the ILO unanimously adopted the convention. It was the first time that a convention or treaty had been adopted with the full support of all members. Over the years, I have spearheaded its ratification by member nations. With 180 countries having already done so, it has become the fastest-ratified convention in the history of ILO. This clearly shows that support for the movement against child labour is gaining momentum worldwide.

Clearing the hurdles

The main bottleneck in the way of India ratifying Conventions 182 and 138 was addressing forced or compulsory recruitment of children and appropriately raising the age of employment in hazardous occupations from 14 to 18 years. Consequent to the passing of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016 by the Indian Parliament prohibiting the employment of children up to 14 years of age, and children up to 18 years of age in hazardous occupations, it was imperative that we ratified Conventions 182 and 138. Moreover, our failure to ratify the two conventions, which are two of the eight core labour conventions, despite being a founder-member of the ILO, reflected poorly on us as a nation.
My sense of achievement is heightened with India finally ready to join the fight it started. Our decision to ratify the convention makes our intent clear. We will not tolerate the exploitation of children any longer. As a matter of urgency, the government will take immediate and effective measures to prohibit and eliminate the worst forms of child labour: child slavery (including the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, and forced recruitment for armed conflict), child prostitution and their use in pornography, use of children for illicit activities such as drug trafficking, and exposure to any hazardous work which is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.
An ideal law guides the way and doesn’t dictate. Under the provisions of the ILO Conventions 182 and 138, India will not adhere to a fixed deadline by which the worst forms of child labour must be eliminated. It will ultimately depend on the level of moral courage, public concern, social empathy, political will and the implementation of resources invested in the development and protection of children.

We cannot alter the circumstances overnight. To achieve great reforms, one must continue to move in a singular direction with sincerity. Our government has shown steadfastness and strong resolve to uphold the rights of our children, and so must we.

Investment in children is an investment in the future. Safe childhoods for a safe India.

Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi is the founder of Global March against Child Labour and Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation.

INDIAN ARMY DAY - 15 January

Army Day is celebrated on 15 January every year in India, in recognition of Lieutenant General K. M. Cariappa's taking over as the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from General Sir Francis Butcher, the last British Commander-in-Chief of India, on 15 January 1949. The day is celebrated in the form of parades and other military shows in the national capital New Delhi as well as in all headquarters. On 15 January 2017 India celebrated its 69th Indian Army day in New Delhi. Army Day marks a day to salute the valiant soldiers who sacrificed their lives to protect the country and the people living in it.

NATIONAL YOUTH DAY - 12 January

National Youth Day is celebrated in India on 12 January on the birthday of Swami Vivekananda. In 1984 the Government of India declared the day as the National Youth Day and since 1985 the event is celebrated in India every year.

ISSUES THAT SOCIAL WORKERS FACE

What Are The Top Issues That Social Workers Face?

The complexity of the human condition has never been more challenging. Many of the difficulties being experienced are out of the scope of individual control, creating greater feelings hopelessness. The responsibilities of today’s social worker are more involved than ever before . To achieve true success in the field, social workers need to fully understand the prevalent issues of current times.

Top Five Social Worker Issues

Economic Decline

Individuals who once had good jobs and decent paychecks are finding themselves visiting food pantries or living in shelters. Social workers employed with various community and family service organizations are seeing a greater number of clients in perilous situations. Without a sustainable living wage and a strengthening economy to support employment growth, many will continue to look to social work agencies as their only safety net.

Aging Population

In a time when they should be enjoying the fruits of their labor, seniors are facing the dual challenges of economic downturn and declining health. Social workers who specialize in helping older clients are tasked with sharing financial strategies, along with other more typical support services. Future generations may be worse off, as Medicare and Social Security face funding deficits that could render those entitlements obsolete.

Bullying

Online communities, like Facebook, have extrapolated the effect that bullies can have on their victims. Social workers in the school environment are especially aware of the impact of bullying on their young clients. Feelings of ridicule and worthless can lead to self-harm and even suicide. However, bullying is not restricted to childhood and adolescence, and can escalate into the workplace or family home in the form of harassment, child abuse, sexual exploitation and more.

Technology

Technology is a two-fold subject. There is the aspect of technology as it relates to aberrant behavior in clients, particularly in terms of online addictions. The other dynamic is the use of workplace technology by social workers themselves. Electronic documentation for diagnosis and coding has become a requirement that takes many professionals out of their comfort zone.

Client Management

Beyond client-facing issues there are other factors that affect the social worker as a person and a professional. Stress is at the top of the list and is inherent to the nature of the work. It can be hard to separate work from life, especially in smaller communities where clients and social workers may cross paths outside of the workplace.There can be work-related stresses that come along with the profession, such as heavy workloads and difficulty with clients and their situations.

 http://socialwork.une.edu/resources/news/top-five-issues-that-modern-social-workers-face/

HAPPY NEW YEAR!