text:
Google + and the Future of Avatar Identity
#SecondLife #GooglePlus | Your avatar is considered your legal identity?
Here's a bit of food for thought when it comes to the United States (and other countries) residents who choose to be known by their Avatar Name/Pseudonym, and something you may consider retweeting to get the word out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_change
In the United States:
Several specific federal court rulings have set precedents regarding both court decreed name changes and common law name changes (changing your name "at will") for the United States.
One may be employed, do business, and enter into other contracts, and sue and be sued under any name they choose at will (Lindon v. First National Bank 10 F. 894, Coppage v. Kansas 236 U.S. 1, In re McUlta 189 F. 250).
Such a change carries exactly the same legal weight as a court-decreed name change as long as it is not done with fraudulent intent (In re McUlta 189 F. 250, Christianson v. King County 196 F. 791, United States v. McKay 2 F.2d 257).
Since persons who choose to use Google services, including Google+, under their Avatar Identities, which constitutes a Pseudonym and is thus protected and federally sanctioned within the United States as having the same legal weight as a court-decreed name change, any T.O.S. enacted by Google is an agreement with a legally standing Pseudonym and carries the same weight to legally be both acceptable and binding as the "true" name of the person involved.
In removing Virtual Environment identities from the Google+ service under "breach of TOS", Google as a company is likely breaking federal law in the United States. This also goes for Facebook, since any "legally binding" T.O.S. entered into agreement by an Avatar Identity holds the same weight legally as a Pseudonym and therefore that of using a real name as long as the intent to defraud does not exist.
Since Avatar Identity is not entered into consideration as "fraudulent" intent by default, and Google falls under the jurisdiction of the United States (as does Facebook), it is perfectly legal (at least to US Citizens) to use an Avatar Identity and it is expected that such can be treated with equality such as a real name would be. As for other countries in the world, I suggest you take a look at your local common law name changes statutes to see if these rules also apply to you, though from cursory reading it appears that similar, if not identical, laws are in place.
This is why Multiplicity of Identity must be embraced. This goes for Avatar Identity, Pseudonym or Real Name, as long as they are not used with an intent to defraud. There is no question about whether or not an Avatar Identity constitutes the same legal standing as a true name under any pretext other than with intent to defraud, or under well defined circumstances by which a true name may be required. However, a business such as Google or Facebook does not constitute such precedence to ignore pseudonyms and is not immune to the law nor has any precedence to violate it.
Since OpenSource Obscure (and other Avatar Identities) are/were used without the intent to defraud, but only make use as a legal pseudonym, violation of of the T.O.S. is non-existent and cannot be legally enforced or mandated - even by a private business such as Google or Facebook.
However, each Avatar Identity has a solid legal case against Google and even Facebook, and can be considered wrongful and illegal termination of services under false pretense. The only reason things stay the same is because nobody bothers to challenge the "corporate inspired" norms... when really, they should.
Actually, I think @Botgirlq said it best: "Wonder if the EFF might be interested?"
I bet you they probably would *love* to help out.
Will Burns | Aeonix Aeon
aka: The guy that may have just started a class action lawsuit
PS: Now would be a good time to rethink your strategy, Google & Facebook
Find me On Google+
Posted by Will Burns at 1:04 AM
Tags: Google+ Facebook SecondLife Avatars Identity
Jim Tarber 2:57 AM
I am furious at Google for introducing Google+ as the alternative to Facebook that respects an individual's privacy, then abandoning the privacy of online identity and forcing everyone to reveal their names. Or perhaps not furious, but hugely let down by their hype followed by this new "also ran" status that makes it useless to me. They are excluding whole categories of online individuals, sorted nicely into functional groups that make targeted advertizing actually easier.
That said, and I am no lawyer, but I don't believe use of their services constitutes any form of contract. For their to be a contract, both parties must be given something, one receives something and the other receives some compensation for that good or service. If Google+ was a paid subscription service, it would be clear contract material. Since it does not, I don't believe contract law can be applied here. Even if it did, they write the ToS and they could claim that their acceptance of the contract was conditional on our acceptance of the ToS, and in not providing real names, we are the ones who have breached any contract if it were to apply here. Their remedy to the breach is to disable or delete the account. In fact, NOT terminating the account access might open them to further legal issues with respect to their decision to allow a user that was in breach of the terms to continue to have access; it may set a precedent that others could point to. But as I said, without any direct compensation from the users for the service, I don't believe contract law applies here.
Bottom line here is that I believe the best chance at getting them to change this is to wake them up to how much better it is -- how *more* appropriated is -- for users to have separate accounts for each virtual identity or role they fill. That fits the Google model better anyway, and how there are millions of us who would use Google+ for our online identities long before we would ever use it under our real names. That will not happen for me, while I do fully intend to try to join as Jim Tarber, online identity. A second parallel approach would be to try to get the attention of the EFF who probably do know the answer to this (if it is well-defined in law) or have the lawyers to investigate and find a legal recourse.
sororNishi 3:36 AM
Will Burns 3:41 AM
@Jim
"For their to be a contract, both parties must be given something, one receives something and the other receives some compensation for that good or service"
The user entering into the contract receives the services while Google receives compensation through targeted marketing revenue from the user's data and interactions, which constitute Google's majority revenue income.
"Even if it did, they write the ToS and they could claim that their acceptance of the contract was conditional on our acceptance of the ToS, and in not providing real names, we are the ones who have breached any contract if it were to apply here."
Take a look again - a pseudonym is legally considered a real name and: One may be employed, do business, and enter into other contracts, and sue and be sued under any name they choose at will
In short, You can't tell Samuel Clemens that he can't have a social media profile under Mark Twain without opening the door to massive amounts of litigation and privacy violations against the user, of which no person is obligated to adhere to against their will.
I would love to find a way to convince, or to legally force, Google to change this privacy-hostile policy. The points you raised in the comment above are good debating points; I'm just not sure they are legal points that would result in a positive ruling. I would sure love to see it challenged though. The problem is that I believe the word "direct" is important in my comment "without any direct compensation from the users for the service, I don't believe contract law applies here." It's been a very long time since I studied contract law, and it was Canadian contract law, so all bets are off, but I guess I'm just not seeing such a definitive interpretation of the clause you quoted as you are.
In terms of a pseudonym being a legal name, yes, I accept that a contract signed by a pseudonym is legal; but that is not at issue here. I am just not so clear that the converse is true: that the other participant is forced to *accept* a new contract signed by a pseudonym. Especially if they make it a term of the contract that they won't accept a pseudonym. And until accepted, there is no contract. These points are very fine legal points though, and I would love to see them raised and promoted by lawyers and applied where ever they could be. I'd love to see a basis for a challenge; I'm just doubtful that this is it.
Even more, I'd love to see Google just wake up and realize it in a win-win to accept alternate account names. In fact, I wouldn't mind a checkbox on my profile "This is my legal birth name" that I would leave unchecked. My problem with Google's current policy is that if you don't check that (imaginary) box, they will disable your account.
To comment on your last point, I think it would be legally acceptable for a book publishing company to refuse to sign an author who did not divulge his legal birth name, even Samuel Clemens. Until they sign, there is no contract for the clause above to apply to. That clause merely says that if they *do* sign with Sam Clemens, that is also a legal contract.
As far as I am aware, there was no such pretext between pseudonym or real name, only that the participant use the name that they are most known by. In either case, it doesn't matter, because in the light of law, a pseudonym is as valid and legal as the real name in this context and indistinguishable.
The intentions of the post were not to bring lawsuits against the companies, though there is plenty of legal precedence to back it, but merely to once and for all draw a line in the sand and show that an avatar name is as legally binding and legitimate as a real name and should be treated as such.
As for being forced to agree to a changed terms of contract after agreement, then this is exactly what is happening when they reject a pseudonym without prior pretext, or legality, and then threaten to suspend access to services (break the contract) unless they divulge information that they are neither legally required to do, nor should have to.
Now, should somebody mount a hell of a case against Google and Facebook for these practices, which may be increasingly likely as this article continues to propagate outward, then so be it.
The article was merely to set the stage and let people know that: yes, indeed, your avatar name is just as legally acceptable and binding as your real name, and that as such, constitutes an important part of your total identity.
This could go one of three ways:
1. Somebody mounts a legal battle the world has never seen against Google and Facebook.
2. Both Google and Facebook realize that allowing Avatar identity, Pseudonyms, and Real Identity altogether or in part would quadruple zeitgeist data and possible revenues as if the world population had just quadrupled (multiple identities being tracked as separate people). This is a better solution because it essentially, and legally, multiplies the population of earth for their gain.
3. Nothing happens, and companies continue to insist that you divulge increasingly more personal information without recourse, for their own personal gain.
I'd like to see #2 happen, personally. However, as social media outlets continue to bite the millions of hands that literally feed it, #1 is more likely over time, and #3 is just the interim between.
I think #2 is the only way forward on this issue. Unfortunately Google thinks they've already solved the same problem with "Circles" -- or enough of the problem that they don't need to care about distinguishing between separate identities as long as they can track separate clusters of association. For some of us, this obviously misses the point, but to a first order approximation... well, it's smarter than Facebook, which they may estimate to be smart enough.
There seems, however, to be some internal contradiction in Google's recent feature plays. We see this latest backsliding from the Profile police, but it wasn't that long ago that the "Switch Account" pulldown menu was introduced to most Google apps, including gmail and even Profiles itself. So which shall it be?
Sherry Hall 10:03 AM
I had suggested to William that everyone with a Google+ profile should list their Second Life or other virtual identity names clearly on their "real" profile as "______ _______ in Second Life" and set profile details to "public." Google+ users could also list the same under their profile description.
At the very least, these tactics will help create a greater awareness of the number of people who actually have "pseudonyms" of this sort. At most, it could link "Second Life" and other virtual world subscribers directly to Google+. Which is exactly what I believe they were hoping to avoid. Use the tools available through Google+ to make a public statement.
Summer Seale 12:07 PM
The problem with the ToS argument is: it doesn't make things legal. What a ToS does is cover their ass a bit more in court if a case does come up, but it doesn't mean they will necessarily win.
A ToS can say anything. It can, for example, say that you will be their slave for the rest of your life, or that they don't have to serve you if you're a certain color or creed, etc....but that doesn't make it legal even if you do accept it, because some things are not legal for a corporation or anyone to do under the law, even if the other party accepts it.
Now, most corporations write their ToS with certain language and within the laws of the land so as to avoid anything like this, and of course they wouldn't just enact slavery or whatever (those are extreme examples of course), but even small things they can try to make you accept aren't necessarily legal, or could easily be challenged in court. Most people don't know this, or even read a ToS, so they usually make them as draconian as they can so as to protect themselves.
However, sometimes...just sometimes...people will call them on it and then they have to decide if it's worth the fight or not.
Speedmaster "Speedy" Bing 3:10 PM
Dr. Leon James, University of Hawaii (skip to 0:55 - 1:08, in video)
"In modern times, since we got computers, we use the term avatar to refer to our digital identity. So, an email address can be considered a simple form of avatar"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDH-9gt5WJc
Jim Tarber 3:25 PM
I hope that is all correct, I'd love to see them taken to task over this. There is another significant point that I overlooked too, which I believe you are bringing up above, and that is the convergence Google is forcing, and I wrote about here: http://jimrantsnraves.blogspot.com/2011/06/kitely-facebook-virtual-identies-and.html
This convergence means it is very likely that Google software will encourage me to use the same account for Google+.
The account I am submitting this comment with is a Google account that I have used for years. It is my "Jim" account, and Google has combined my YouTube, Blogger and other accounts into this virtual identity. It is a Google account. It *is* my identity on online services, and especially on Google. That identity and account predate Google+, therefore are outside the scope of any agreement. If they add a clause saying I cannot use that identity on Google+, then they lose the convergence of identities that they seem to seek to want to force with this policy. And it might be deemed as changing the agreement terms after both parties have accepted them and used them for years (prior to Google+).
I don't think we will see your #2 scenario unless there are some deep thinkers in management positions there, or unless they see that the disparity of internal policies creates a chasm for existing Google users between their own services, and fixes that disparity between policies. I agree with you that we are most likely to see #3 with blind ignorance of the issues winning the day.
And see, identity is such a user-defined concept, that I got Twain and Clemens backwards. :) My comment above was written as if Clemens was his pen name. I meant that the clause merely says that if they *do* sign with Mark Twain, that is also a legal contract.
Will Burns 8:57 PM
What the law essentially is saying is: When somebody asks for your real name, or insists on you using it, it is legal and appropriate that you may insist that the pseudonym *is* your real name and must be recognized as such in all but the most well defined circumstances.
In agreements between yourself and private businesses, such does not fall within the scope of those well defined circumstances where you are legally required to use your birth name.
Besides the point, Google also makes it clear elsewhere on its services that they support Anonymous, Pseudonymous and Authentic identities - which is the exact opposite of their current stance within Google+, which in turn contradicts both T.O.S. since all services are working together.
Cisop Sixpence 10:10 AM
Re: "What the law essentially is saying is: When somebody asks for your real name, or insists on you using it, it is legal and appropriate that you may insist that the pseudonym *is* your real name and must be recognized as such in all but the most well defined circumstances."
Most Excellent!
Nick Barnett 5:49 PM
Google is a company that owns their software, servers, and everything in between. How could anyone be wishing that they could force someone (google) into allowing things on their property that they don't wish to be there. If you think this is ok, perhaps I will get together with some congress-critters and force them to let me live in your house.
I say this because it is a property rights issue, nothing more. I do NOT support google for this decision, I hope they change it. If they dont, then don't use their services, get friends to follow, raise a stink and get google to voluntarily change their position.
@Nick
It doesn't matter how big you are as a company. It doesn't matter what you own. It never gives you the right to break the law because of it, and deny people their basic lawful rights.
This isn't a property rights issue, it's a legal identity issue and what constitutes a legal identity is clearly spelled out in law - and no amount of wording in a private company T.O.S. is going to change that law. Not even if Google or Facebook wrote the T.O.S.
Plain and simple.
Nick Barnett 10:50 PM
Simply because athe government recognizes aliases does not mean that everyone needs to. Go try and get a bank account in your second life name, or rent a car with an email address. These laws are not in place to provide you with freedom but rather to ensure that if you enter a contract with a false name that you must uphold your end.
Will Burns 11:01 PM
That's neither for me nor you to decide. That's why there is a court of law, lawyers. In a world where people can sue McDonalds for not telling them the hot coffee they ordered was hot, or sue Windex for implicitly not telling them not to spray it in their eyes, I believe a more serious issue such as personal privacy and the right to it holds much more weight.
That being said, whether you are for or against it doesn't matter, as this is not the intention. It is simply to raise a number of points concerning the future of identity, and at what point does a private company demanding you give that privacy up for their own monetary benefit cross the line.
As for opening a bank account with a pseudonym, you haven't been to Florida, have you? Perfectly legal.
Yoshiko Fazuku 7:55 PM
Perfectly legal to open a bank account as a pseudonym. its called a DBA
very well said :)
Gwyneth Llewelyn 3:03 AM
@Aeonix, thank you so much for posting this — it's refreshing to know that the world has not yet gone insane (even though some companies are!)
@Summer, that is how contract law is interpreted in my country as well, and I always wondered how it was in the US. I'm really happy to know that it's not really different.
So if I understand correctly, the only reason why companies in the US can get away with such blatant violations of the law is merely because they can afford a legal battle, while users, in general, cannot? (in the sense of having to support huge and long-lasting judicial costs and lawyer fees) To "win" we'd have to find some gentle lawyer (good suggestion about contacting the EFF! Maybe Mitch Kapor could put a nice word on our behalf with them?) willing to go pro bono in such a case and earn the glory and fame of establishing precedent?
Note that such a lawyer would have to fight either Facebook or Google — and then have the precedent apply to the other one.
It should be interesting to see what happens.
EFF on Anonymity (they definitely won a few cases)
This is just one possible outcome that could happen as a result of continued ignorance of Multiplicity of Identity, being a legal challenge on a grand scale. However, I like to favor the more direct approach by simply sidestepping those companies altogether and taking away their power through competition.
Please see my latest post:
diaspora* | Why SecondLife may find their social media answer blowing in the wind
http://cityofnidus.blogspot.com/2011/07/diaspora.html
Gwyneth Llewelyn 3:01 PM
@Aeonix, obviously you're right; we don't need Google or Facebook. I'm also not too happy about the idea of "pushing" Google to do what they don't want to; as you remark very correctly, it's not as if there aren't tons of other social environments around (and Linden Lab is creating their own, too — http://my-demo.secondlife.com).
My issue is more about the quasi-monopoly that Google can effectively enforce. While at this stage they're "only" removing Google Profiles, and not deleting accounts, they might very well start removing the whole account in the future. When that happened to me with my Facebook account, it was not only the loss of my access to Facebook — I lost access to hundreds of sites that I subscribed using a Facebook account. So effectively Facebook can override the way I access other, third-party sites who are not affiliated with Facebook; many of those have not the same restrictions as Facebook's policies, and don't really care about the account in itself, but just wish to facilitate access to their sites.
With Google accounts, at least for me personally, things are far more serious. Not only I'm subscribed to way more services (just thinking about all the blogs etc. I'm subscribed to — even this comment is being posted with my Google account!), but some of them are related to my meagre income from ads. What this means is that Google can effectively shut me out of all their services, cut down my revenue, and, worse than that, I might not have valid alternatives for those services (some are unique to Google).
Now I'm obviously not an excellent example, since my actual income through Google is not really much — a few dozens of US$ per year. But it's the question of principle: we have effectively given Google the privilege of deciding who can use their services and who cannot, based on arbitrary demands. This is, in a word, discrimination.
As I suggested elsewhere, what prevents Google from starting to discriminate on other characteristics as well? For instance, their ad customers might only be interested in people who actually shop online. Since Google also provides a shopping interface — Google Checkout — they could say that you were "forced" to regularly shop for a certain amount every month, or face profile deletion. And then their ad customers could "demand" that only specific types of users are allowed at all — e.g. wealthy online shoppers who are white Caucasians above a certain age and education level, and tell Google to shut everybody else out because they're "worthless" in terms of click rate and so forth.
You might claim that it's not reasonable to assume that this will happen, and I agree. But the principle at stake is that these companies are getting bolder and bolder in overriding basic civil rights. Once you start discriminating and ignoring one civil right, others can follow, one step at the time, making those companies bolder and bolder, and "justifying" their decisions as good business practice as "demanded by their customers" — and simply tell the ostracised group to "go elsewhere because there are alternatives".
Diaspora is certainly interesting, but, say, they don't have a digital ID that is accepted as a valid login on over 80% of all sites (like Facebook and Google do). They don't run an affiliate network, or an ad network. They don't have shared documents, shared calendars, shared maps... and so forth. It's not as if it's impossible to do all things over time, and using different products, but what Google provides is a single sign-on solution that gives access to a plethora of services. Besides Facebook, you obviously also have Yahoo, and Microsoft (who provide almost the same services as Google does), but you can see how little MS Live Accounts are actually provided by most services world-wide: Facebook and Google accounts dominate that area, and the sites that use them for providing with account IDs don't even have a clue — or might even disagree — about Facebook's and Google's discriminative policies.
So it's not about alternatives — there are alternatives. It's about a cartelisation, an oligopoly which is slowly emerging with a set of "rules" (ToS and similar documents) that allow these companies to say who has access to the Internet and who doesn't. I'm wildly exaggerating, of course, since a lot of services haven't got Facebook/Google accounts as "mandatory". Not yet. But as those services become more and more popular, and tend to grow to cover almost all users, this battle for defining who is entitled to a digital ID that works world-wide and who gets excluded is starting to show the shape of the future.
Remember OpenID? It was also something de-centralised and planned to allow people to avoid being tied to discriminative policies when using a digital ID to sign up with lots of services. OpenID is being... sort of phased out, because so few use it, while the number of FB and Google accounts which provide pretty much the same service are growing all the time. Which is worrying — because they will decide who has access to all Internet in the near future. Not governments, not individuals.
Just remember - a monopoly is only enforceable when there are no other choices. Hence, I suggested diaspora
Miso Susanowa 12:37 AM
First, thx for your blog - just really got onto it but it's fascinating and interesting!
Great post. I am very glad to see this issue penetrating the awareness horizon of the "new generation." I myself am an Oldbie: I first logged onto the net in 1983.
I am sad that so many who use the net extensively now do not know how the net ran before these corporations decided to embrace, extend and gradually extinguish the unique opportunities in communication the net was building.
It is time for people to understand the difference between a communications platform and a one-way broadcast medium shoveling "sanctified" content.
@Aeonix; Hi! LinkedIn has made noises about sole "real" user names but does not seem to have blundered like Facebook and Google+ by dropping accounts and antagonizing their ad-reading user base. With the reactions to the revelations of NSF metadata mining, including negative publicity and formation of anonymity based social networks, there is even more hesitation on my part of allowing my real world information to be connected and registered and linked through all Google and Facebook and LinkedIn "services" who, after all, are paid by advertisers, who are in turn paid by we consumers.
Don't Be Stupid.
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The telco, which is majority owned by South African Vodacom Group, said that Hisham Hendi will hold the position until the issue is resolved.
Safaricom's former executive Sylvia Mulinge is yet to take up the MD position five months since her appointment.
Ms Mulinge said she is yet to secure a work permit from Tanzanian authorities.
Vodacom Tanzania has appointed an acting managing director after it failed to unlock a work permit stalemate that has kept Safaricom's former executive Sylvia Mulinge from taking up the position five months since her appointment.
"Mr Hisham Hendi has assumed the role of acting managing director from September 1, 2018 until such time the on-boarding process of the substantive managing director is completed," Vodacom said in a notice posted on its website.
Mr Hendi, who has over 15 years of commercial experience, has been Vodacom Tanzania's director of Consumer Business Unit having joined the firm in 2016.
On Tuesday, Ms Mulinge, a Kenyan, who until her appointment worked as Safaricom's director for consumer business confirmed that she is yet to secure a work permit from Tanzanian authorities, but remained hopeful that she will soon clear the hurdle and assume leadership of the telecom firm.
"Have you met any Kenyan who is trying to get work permit in Tanzania? It takes a while. They just told us to be patient as they work on it," she said.
The Tanzania High Commission website says foreigners seeking to work for companies or institutions in the country are required to obtain a Class B residence permit.
The expatriate is, however, not allowed to enter the country before the Residence Permit Class B is granted, a condition that has made it impossible for Ms Mulinge to report to office before the process is completed.
"Residence permit Class B is issued to foreign expatriates with rare professional skills to work for the companies in Tanzania," states the website.
Ms Mulinge was picked to replace Ian Ferrao, the former MD who exited in May having seen the firm list on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange in August last year.
Vodacom Tanzania chairman Ali Mufuruki had also welcomed Ms Mulinge's appointment, saying he was confident in her ability to take Vodacom to greater heights using leadership experience from Safaricom.
"Sylvia has extensive experience of launching innovative products that have augmented Safaricom's financial performance and transformed the lives of its customers over the years," said Mr Mufuruki.
Ms Mulinge joined Safaricom in 2006 from Unilever where she served as Sunlight brand manager.
At Safaricom, she rose to the position of director, consumer business in March 2015.
Safaricom chief executive Bob Collymore while announcing Ms Mulinge's appointment to head Vodacom in April said that Charles Wanjohi would take her position on interim basis.
It isn't surprising that reality is contradicting the spirit and promise of East African integration.


text:
Janine Stanwood, Anchor/Reporter
Published: June 1, 2018, 5:46 pm
Tags: Palm Beach County, News, Broward, Crime, National
Judge denies 'stand your ground' claim in killing of Corey Jones
Nouman Raja to face trial for manslaughter, attempted murder in July
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. – Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer denied a former Palm Beach Gardens Police Department officer's "stand your ground" defense in the 2015 fatal shooting of Corey Jones.
Nouman Raja will have to face trial for manslaughter and attempted murder. The judge announced her decision Friday after a two-day hearing last month.
Raja was working for the department Oct. 18,2015, but was not wearing his uniform when he approached Jones, a 31-year-old drummer who was stranded after his car broke down on Interstate 95 at the Palm Beach Gardens Boulevard exit ramp.
A police officer shot and killed Corey Jones after his car broke down on a Florida highway on Oct. 18, his relatives said. Police said an officer in plainclothes stopped to investigate what he thought was an abandoned car. The chief of police said Officer Nouman Raja was then confronted by "an armed suspect" and that "as a result of the confrontation, (Raja) discharged his firearm."
Jones was a member of "Future Prezidents," a reggae band, and worked as a building manager for the Delray Beach Housing Authority.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office will be prosecuting Raja as the aggressor during trial set on July 16. Raja is likely to appeal the judge's ruling.
The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013.
Janine Stanwood
Janine Stanwood joined Local 10 News in February 2004 as an assignment editor. She is now a general assignment reporter. Before moving to South Florida from her Washington home, Janine was the senior legislative correspondent for a United States senator on Capitol Hill.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
ROOT_PATH = File.expand_path("../..", __FILE__)
$LOAD_PATH.unshift(ROOT_PATH)

# require pry for debugging (`binding.pry`)
require 'pry'

module NsOptions
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    module_function

    def capture
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      $stdout = io
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      return out
    ensure
      $stdout = STDOUT
    end

  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
J a p a n e s e C u l t u r e
Modern and Traditional Japanese Culture: The Psychology of Buddhism, Power Rangers, Masked Rider, Manga, Anime and Shinto. 在日イギリス人男性による日本文化論.
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Face Processing in Japanese and Sign Language Speakers
Roberto Caldara and associates find that when recognising faces, Westerners tend to triangulate (in a manner of speaking) analysing the face moving their gaze from eye to eye to mouth, whereas East Asians seem to process faces globally and holistically, perhaps, by focusing upon the nose (upper two images, Miellet, Vizioli, He, Zhou, & Caldara, 2013, p.6).
Bearing in mind that in Lubna Ahmed as yet unpublished research, showing that repeating numbers impedes Westeners but does not reduce the facial processing ability of Japanese, and that repeating numbers impedes analytical but does not impede global processing of Navon figures (Ahmed & W de Fockert, 2012) , conversely improving global recognition, and crossing these results with the fact that research repeating the alphabet is the way of preventing self-talk (Kim, 2002), I presumed that all this demonstrated that East Asian global/holistic face processing is also non-linguistic processing, or conversely that Western triangulation is linguistic processing -- looking for nameable features -- which is impeded by being made to remember and presumably repeat numbers.
Caldera also introduces research (lower four images above from Watanabe, Matsuda, Nishioka, & Namatame, 2011, p.4) that demonstrates that the deaf and women are more likely to use the Western, 'triangulating' style of facial processing, whereas non-deaf and males seem to use the global style method of focussing on the nose. Noted elsewhere the Japanese should resemble the deaf if they are really not whispering -- thinking in words. So why is it that the deaf are using the Western style of face processing?
I think that this further reversal is due to the type of information being processed. The upper image is of Westerner and East Asians recognising the identities of faces whereas the lower four images are of deaf and non deaf, males and females processing emotions.
Emotions and identities may be being processed in opposite ways. As Caldera and colleagues point out (Stoll et al., 2017) the deaf use their faces to speak, so facial expressions and perhaps also emotions of the deaf are more likely to be processed linguistically using the triangulation method. Identities on the other hand are seen as linguistic by Westerners and the non-deaf who process the identities of faces in such a way as enwordify them, where as the Japanese (and I predict the deaf) see identify in the face itself (Watsuji, 2011). In other words, if Matsuda, Nishioka, & Namatame repeated their research except asking deaf and hearing subjects to identify facial identities, I predict they would have found the opposite tendency.
Caldera has further also performed some further fascinating research (Stoll et al., 2017) that finds that both deaf and non-deaf people who use sign language process faces in a different way.
I think that this explains the meaning of Kata, the forms used in everything from Karate to tea ceremony, by which I presume Japanese learn to be Japanese (based on hints from Masamune, Butler, 1993; and Yamamoto, 2009). Kata forms are like sign language by means of which the Japanese learn to speak with their bodies. The Japanese speak at shrines where they clap, and in the kata of martial arts and tea ceremony training rooms, with their bodies. The Japanese have bodies that speak. For the Japanese, this allows them to realise that speaking takes place on the outside of the head, on the forehead even, and this may be how the curse, of the whispering, can be lifted.
I am always attempting to leap to the conclusion.
And, there is a problem with the above line of reasoning in that Lubna Ahmed's unpublished research which showed that repeating numbers did not impede Japanese facial recognition, was upon the recognition of emotions in faces. According to the above reasoning, it is the Japanese who should be impeded if, like the deaf, they are processing emotion in an analytical way.
However, that the differences exhibited by Westerners and East Asians are beginning to be demonstrated in differences between deaf and hearing, and people memorising digits and those who are not, suggests at least tentative support for the Nacalian turn.
Images are from upper two images, Miellet, Vizioli, He, Zhou, & Caldara, 2013, p.6 and Watanabe, Matsuda, Nishioka, & Namatame, 2011, p.4.
お取り下げご希望の場合は下記のコメント欄か、http://nihonbunka.comで掲示されるメールアドレスにご一筆ください。 Should anyone want me to cease and desist, please leave a comment or contact me from the email link at nihonbunka.com
Ahmed, L., & W de Fockert, J. (2012). Working Memory Load Can Both Improve and Impair Selective Attention: Evidence from the Navon Paradigm. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 74, 1397–405. doi.org/10.3758/s13414-012-0357-1
Butler, J. (1993). Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex. Routledge.
Miellet, S., Vizioli, L., He, L., Zhou, X., & Caldara, R. (2013). Mapping Face Recognition Information Use across Cultures. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 34. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00034
Stoll, C., Palluel-Germain, R., Caldara, R., Lao, J., Dye, M. W. G., Aptel, F., & Pascalis, O. (2017). Face Recognition is Shaped by the Use of Sign Language. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 1–9. doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enx034
Watanabe, K., Matsuda, T., Nishioka, T., & Namatame, M. (2011). Eye Gaze during Observation of Static Faces in Deaf People. PLOS ONE, 6(2), e16919. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016919
Watsuji, T. (2011). Mask and Persona. Japan Studies Review, 15, 147–155.
Yamamoto, I., 山本一輝. (2009). メンタルトレーニング~弓道を通じた自己イメージのあり方~(Mental Training: The way of self imaging achieved through Japanese Archery) (未発表卒論). 山口大学経済学部観光政策学科.
Labels: japanese culture, Nacalian, nihonbunka, 日本文化
# posted by Timtak @ 2:04 PM 0 comments
No Confidence in their Smile?
The Japanese are about one third as likely to say that they are confident in their smile (Funaki, 2006, p.29), because I believe and as Hamaguchi, Takemoto and Tobimatsu (in preparation) demonstrates, the Japanese express their confidence with their smile not about it.
Takemoto, Hamaguchi, & Tobimatsu .(in preparation). The Japanese smile as a symbol of positive self-regard.
舩木純三. (2006). クリニカル 笑顔の効用とスマイルトレーニングの必要性. 日本歯科医師会雑誌, 59(7), 631-639.
sunano.whitesnow.jp/pdf/smile-traning.pdf
Heroes: All Mouth and No Mouth At All
Western superheroes sometimes show their faces, like Superman and sometimes have a full faced mask like Iron man but when they wear a partial mask it always shows their mouth. They appear to be all mouth. On the other hand, Japanese super heroes often have no mouth at all. The mouth and the spoken word is not very important, or even avoided, in Japan but Westerners and their heroes are their pronouns, names and self-narratives. With heroes this different there may be reason to be concerned.
Derrida believes that the war to end all wars will be waged in the name of the name.
"But as it is in the name of something whose name, in this logic of total destruction, can no longer be borne, transmitted, inherited by anything living, that name in the name of which war would take place would be the name of nothing, it would be pure name, the "naked name." That war would be the first and the last war in the name of the name, with only the non-name of "name." It would be a war without a name, a nameless war, for it would no longer share even the name of war with other events of the same type, of the same family. Beyond all genealogy, a nameless war in the name of the name. That would be the End and the Revelation of the name itself, the Apocalypse of the Name. "(Derrida, 1984, p.30-31)
Western Heroes
Citizen V
Phantom of the Fair
American Crusader
Keen Detective
Fighting Yank
The Black Terror
Cat Man
New Invaders
Blonde Platinum
Captain Courageous
Crimson Avenger
Japanese Heroes
Masked Riders
Ultramen (mouths suggested, but unmoving and non functional. They express the identity of the ultraman but do not speak.)
Hell0 Kitty
Derrida, J. (1984). No Apocalypse, Not Now (full speed ahead, seven missiles, seven missives). Translated by C. Porter, & P. Lewis, diacritics, 14(2), 20-31. www.uni-giessen.de/faculties/gcsc/media/workshop-feminism...
Labels: japanese culture, Nacalian, nihonbunka, superhero, 日本文化
Indentity: Asians Lower, Westerners Upper
When learning identity, Asians look at the nose and the lower part of the face (above left) whereas Westerners look at the eyes and mouth, triangulating, comparatively focussing more on the upper part of the face (above right).
This is the opposite as I would have predicted bearing in mind that Japanese thieves (dorobo) traditionally used a wrapping cloth to cover the upper part of their face (other than their eyes), whereas Western outlaws traditionally covered the lower part of their face with their scarf.
It is also the opposite of the part of the face that East Asian and Western children use to recognise emotions. I argue that the way in which emotion and identity are perceived may be swapped East to West.
East Asian Children Look at Eyes to Sense Emotion
Since Yuki, Maddux and Masuda (2007) we know that Westerners and Asians look at different parts of the face when discriminating and processing emotions. We now know that even in seven month old children, East Asian children fixate on the eyes even or especially when looking at happy faces, whereas Western children look at mouths as illustrated in the image above (Geangu, et al., 2016, p. R663).
お取り下げご希望の場合は下記のコメント欄か、http://nihonbunka.comで掲示されるメールアドレスにご一筆ください。 Should you wish that I cease and desist, please leave a comment here, at flickr, or send me an email to the link on my homepage http://nihonbunka.com
Geangu, E., Ichikawa, H., Lao, J., Kanazawa, S., Yamaguchi, M. K., Caldara, R., & Turati, C. (2016). Culture shapes 7-month-olds' perceptual strategies in discriminating facial expressions of emotion. Current Biology, 26(14), R663-R664. 下記URL2017/10/28参照 www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982216306054
Yuki, M., Maddux, W. W., & Masuda, T. (2007). Are the windows to the soul the same in the East and West? Cultural differences in using the eyes and mouth as cues to recognize emotions in Japan and the United States. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43(2), 303-311.
Washida is Not his Face, Body or Clothes
Professor Seichi Washida (2017) often rails against the centrality of face in Japanese perceptions of self (Watsuji. 2011). In this short piece on the front page of the Asahi Newspaper, Washida quotes Ichikawa Hiroshi, who in fact argues the unity of mind and body (Ichikawa, 1975) as saying that this face is that which is farthest from himself. I think perhaps Ichikawa draws a destinction between face, which can not be seen, and the body that can and the place in which it is perceived. Despite this fact, Washida does not distinguish between the body and face, and asks "is the body the first image clothes I wear perhaps?" This metaphor relating the body with clothing can be use to theorize superheroes who are light (Ultraman) or their clothes (Sentai/Power Rangers, Kamen/ Masked riders, Gundam, Eva, and Iron Man). Japanese people, as they become Japanese, grow into their clothes. Professor Washida remains unconvinced.
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Washida, S. 鷲田清一.(2017/10/27).折々のことば915.朝日新聞朝刊.
市川浩. (1975). 精神としての身体. 勁草書房.
Labels: japanese culture, nihonbunka, Super-Sentai, superhero
One Reason Japanese Waiters Shout
apanese waiters, and Karate practioners, shout as they go about their business. They shout "Welcome" to the customers, and sometimes even shout out the customers orders such as "An extra helping of Ramen!" in voice loud enough for the clientee and staff in the whole restaurant to hear. There are a number of reasons why they are doing this, including the fact that such shouting is approved of by the majority of Japanese customers. Additionally it may the the case that shouting makes them better at their job.
Lubna Ahmed and a colleague (Ahmed & W de Fockert, 2012) gave subjects one of two low difficulty and high difficulty memory tasks, before asking them to respond with either the small or large letter represented by a Navon figure. In the low load condition, the numbers that the subjects remembered where consecutive ascending, whereas in the high load condition the numbers were random. I suggest that the random, but not consecutive number condition, the subjects usually resorted to the typical phone-number memory method of repeating the digits. Under t his condition they became faster at recognising the large letter represented by a Navon figure: "S" in the case of the figure above right. This is because repeating the digits loaded and turned off the linguistic analytical mind, leaving them to react naturally and more quickly to the globally presented "S." Waiter's likewise, whose job it is to attend to the needs of a restaurant full of customers, and Karate practitioners who need to react with speed to movements of an opponent, can benefit from loading their linguistic brain, allowing to respond rapidly, naturally and in a Western sense mindlessly.
The above image is adapted from (Ahmed & W de Fockert, 2012, Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. on p. 1399 and p. 1400 respectively)
Individualist Rucksacks
Traditionally these lightweight, stiff rucksacks for primary school children called randoseru, from the Dutch word ransel, came in only two colours: black for boys and red for girls. The colour coding of boys and girls rucksacks continued for more than 100 years since their introduction in 1885 (Penttinen, 2011). Due to the uniformity of their colour and design the use of randoseru has been described as part of the process of "inculcating group values"(Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel, 2011, pp. 402).
Each weekday morning small groups of elementary school students assemble near their homes and set out for their school house in classic military platoon formation... They also carry the ubiquitous backpack (randoseru), identifiable throughout Japan in shape and size and differing significantly in only the color —predominately red and black, but occasionally another color. The back packs mark the wearers as elementary students and the hats denote the school attended.
(Ibid, pp. 402-403)
In the 1990s, however, with the advent of feminism and increasing individualism there was pressure on schools and randoseru makers to provide rucksacks in other colours. It is only in the past decade that non-black non-red randoseru have become popular. A Google image search for images of randoseru stipulating before 2010 shows rucksacks in predominantly the two traditional colours. Primary school children now commonly wear rucksacks in all the colours shown here.
Penttinen, L. (2011) A Research Upon School Uniforms and Personal Style. epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_nbn_fi_uef-20110453/urn_nbn_...
Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., & McDaniel, E. R. (2011). Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Cengage Learning.
# posted by Timtak @ 11:02 AM 0 comments
Speaking in Pictures
Like the Heptapod in Arrival (2016), the Japanese speak in pictures in adverts like this, on game shows, using smilies, smiles, and large number of other signs, and to a greater extent than Westerners believe language to be external to the mind. Their language is, like their smiles, a gesture or sign to others, and even their first person pronoun is no more or less than a you for you (Mori, 1999) and is not accompanied by a giant, uncanny ear (Nietzsche, see Derrida & McDonald, 1985). That said, Sadako looks out of their eyes (Nishida, 1939; Mumon, 1228).
Derrida, J., & McDonald, C. (1985). The Ear of the Other: Otobiography, Transference, Translation: Texts and Discussions with Jacques Derrida. New York: Schocken Books.
Mori, A. 森有正. (1999). 森有正エッセー集成〈5〉. 筑摩書房.
Mumon, E. (1228). "Koan 42. The Girl Comes Out from Meditation". The Gateless Gate. Poor translation "One wears the mask of god, one a devil's mask." should be just, "God head and Devil mask" afaik. Retrieved from
Nishida, K. (1939). 絶対矛盾的自己同 一(Absolutely Contradictory Self Identity) www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000182/files/1755.html
www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/mumonkan.htm
# posted by Timtak @ 9:38 AM 0 comments
Stopping Momentarily (Ittanteishi)
All vehicles stop momentarily (ittanteishi 一旦停止) to check for approaching trains, before crossing railway level crossings even if the barrier is up and the lights are in their favour. This stands in contrast to the fact that even in Japan one is not required to stop ones vehicle momentarily to see if anyone is running a red light at green traffic lights.
Once a long time ago I asked a university professor why the Japanese university professor why this is the case. He suggested that it could be due to the emperor system (which was his axe to grind) such that common folk are required to pay respect to any representative of Japan (such as JR trains) since they are also therefore representatives of, or represented by, the "symbolic emperor". At the time I thought, "surely not" but upon reflection it occurs to me that this practice of paying deference to representatives of the state has a long history.
Consider the Namamugi incident of 1862 where three Britons who refused to dismount to allow the procession of the Lord of Kagoshima (then Satsuma) to pass where attacked by attendant samurai swordsmen who expected deference from commoners, even British ones. Far further back in time the Wajinden or 'Records of Wei', written by Chinese visitors to ancient Japan in the early 6 century, recorded the fact that commoners would move to the side of the road and bow at the passing of aristocracy. 1500 years later the Japanese are still paying their respect to the passing of representatives of the polity, in the form of trains at level crossings.
From a logical point of view, I can see how it could be more important to stop at level crossings rather than at traffic lights if the vehicle stopping has the power to derail the train containing large number of people, resulting in large number of causalities. This could happen in the case of trucks and large cars, but it is difficult to imagine in the case of light cars
and surely cyclists would be simply swatted off the rails like mosquitoes should they venture onto the tracks at an importune time.
I can therefore think of no logical reason why cyclists should be made to stop momentarily and check for approaching trains at level crossings, but not at green traffic lights. But there is something beautiful about it, so I do it anyway.
Labels: japan, japanese culture, 日本文化
This blog represents the opinions of the author, Timothy Takemoto, and not the opinions of his employer.


Rider, Old High playing for three titles each at District 5-5A Tennis Tournament.
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS – Rider and Wichita Falls High School will each play for three District 5-5A tennis championships Tuesday at the Richland Tennis Center after the WFISD teams dominated in traditional fashion Monday.
Old High will have three doubles teams going for championships. That includes a matchup with Rider in girls doubles.
Rider has the aforementioned Casie Curry and Maddie Rowe in the girls doubles final after the duo didn't even drop a game in the quarterfinals or semifinals. And the Raiders have freshman Julia Chon in the girls singles final and Chris Selsor in the boys singles final.
Rider coach Kyle Apperson was off seeing his son honored for his military service and so Alexandra McClung had the reins. She was pretty proud of her Raiders, too.
"Overall it was a good tennis day; still a lot of lessons to be learned and we have to be determined," she said, looking ahead to the finals.
The doubles finals will be Old High's Mitchell Norrie and Preston Stephan against Russell Hill and Avery Kahl of Sherman in boys, Curry-Rowe against Shelby Davis and Lily Kaster of Old High in girls and the Coyotes' Drew Bowles and Emma Winstead against Denison's Bao Catteau and Bri Moran in mixed.
There were two dominant teams in boys doubles and they'll meet in the finals. The No. 1 seeded Coyotes won three of four sets 6-0 and the other 6-3. The Bearcats' Hill and Kahl, who also lost just three games, defeated Rider's Will Bjordammen/Maaz Tatla 6-3, 6-0. The No. 3-seeded Raiders had rolled in their first match 6-1, 6-0.
Selsor looked the part of the No. 1 seed with a first-round bye and then scored a double bagel (6-0, 6-0) in the quarterfinals. He then rolled over Kaelan Wilson of Denton Ryan 6-0, 6-3 in the semifinals.
Selsor's opponent is Noah Villarreal of Denton, who defeated Matthew Storie of Denton Ryan 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the semifinals.
Different players, different goals. And Rider's Casie Curry and Maddie Rowe looked on a different level Monday with two 6-0, 6-0 wins. They'd like to do that again Tuesday, said McClung. But more importantly she wants to see the duo with state aspirations keep working on their game and not let up thinking it's easy.
Davis and Kaster, the second seed, had a double bagel to start and a solid 6-4, 6-1 victory over No. 3 Sherman in the semifinals.
"They're going to go out and play hard," Huse said.
And should the favored Raiders win, Huse is confident her team is in shape physically and mentally to play a second match with regionals on the line.
Chon defeated Shepley 6-1, 6-2 to reach the finals. Chon, the second seed, will face No. 1 Haylee Cannon of Denison, who defeated Old High's Alex Alden 6-0, 6-0 in the semifinals.
Chon lost a match earlier this year in a one-day event to Cannon and thus the chance at the top seed.
The two Coyotes will play for third and hope a winner emerges that gives them a chance at a play-back.
Bowles and Winstead won some rivalry bragging rights by earning the key points in a 6-3, 6-4 win over Rider's Desi Harris and Matthew Tegtmeyer That'll make for an all-Raider third-place match with Sean Valverde and Hailey Harrison, who fell to the top seeds 6-0, 6-0.
But Valverde and Harrison had quite a day – they may owe some extra court dues – after a 4-6, 4-6, 6-1 win over Denton in the first round and then a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over the No. 4 seed from Sherman in the quarterfinals. "I think the best part in both matches is that they lost the first set and came out in the second set saying 'not today.' They played for each other and they were more aggressive on the court," McClung said.
So were the results for both the Coyotes and Raiders, who will be trying to lock up as many spots as they can in the Region I-5A Tournament, which is April 17-19 in Lubbock.


When baseball followers of these days come up with electrical power hitters, details for instance Symbol McGwire as well as Craig Sautillement one thinks of. These types of people include been admired and famed as between baseball's top level home go hitters, breaking up records and dazzling crowds with most of their sports success.
After using a calendar year to the subsequently minor-league Baltimore Orioles, Girl Ruth was sold to often the Boston ma Inflammed Sox. Even if mainly used seeing that a pitcher on the particular company, around 1915 Ruth tacked down any spot at a negative balance Sox commencing rotation, striking. 315 in the season and even hitting his particular first 4 home extends. The Pink Sox achieved the Community String that will season although Hottie did not lead a whole lot, never pestering during the show in addition to grounding in his or her exclusively at-bat.
Your next 12 months Ruth could make a serious contribution begging a 14-inning complete-game landslide? Defeat? Upset? Result in adventure two to help the Reddish Sox win another Community Series. Ruth would display his selling abilities if he threw a new 1-0 shutout in the exact garage door opener hardware about the 1918 World Range.
Ruth's ideal year with his vocation was with 1921 reaching 59 house functions, playing baseball. 378 and slugging. 846 when they driven the particular Yankees to their first league championship.
He had the facility as well as capacity to commute numerous residence works within just and over and above the exact 450-500 ankle variety. Her design of have fun with became called "Ruthian", expounding on any very long home operate hit simply by any gamer.
Most regarding us bring to mind Babe Ruth as just one of the very perfect hitters the video game about football possibly developed, nonetheless he / she at first shattered right into the significant leagues like a pitcher. Ahead of he was basically praised for his / her popular home manage bumping ability, the person was starting off pitcher for your Boston Red-colored Sox. Produced in Baltimore, Maryland, this father sent him in order to St. Mary's Industrial The school for Forceful after the actual fatality connected with Babe's mum. It turned out with this the school that the guy was initially announced to the game of baseball.
In 1923 when the Yankees went within the Polo Environment, their new ground ended up being christened "The House In which Ruth Created. Inch Toddler Ruth hurt Yankee Stadium's earliest dwelling work in their upset? Result across the Crimson Sox.
Even though his or her fullness with all the boldtr? , Baby Ruth is as well remembered to get a high priced trust running boo-boo throughout the 1926 World Sequence. Known just for her overaggressive platform functioning, Ruth tried taking second bottom utilizing the Yankees trailing 3-2 with a couple outs during the bottom of the ninth inning. He ended up being trashed, concluding the experience and even the Collection.
Inspite of the identification those online players acquired while widely known sluggers, only one karate guitar player will achieve standing out between the best involving them all. Launched at April 4, 1895, George Herman Ruth Jr.. , child regarding German-American families, belly in order to be taken into account one for the most effective sports activities characters for American lifestyle, as well as branded the main greatest martial arts player of all time according to diverse studies plus search positions. Following getting nicknamed "Jack's most innovative babe" from Baltimore Orioles game enthusiasts just after their very own seller and even administrator Jack port Dunn authorized Ruth for you to play with regards to team, the name Babe Ruth would come to be synonymous together with baseball effectiveness.
This would be his final Globe Series physical appearance as some pitcher having a record ERA of 1. 06. With the suggestion of an teammate, Ruth began trying to play in the particular outfield a great deal more and pestering less. Selection 75 hitting-only appearances along with batted. 300 leading typically the A. D. With ten home functions despite just having 317 at-bats in the season. Babe's last months with typically the Reddish Sox is in 1919 when he in addition set a record single-season 29 property runs.
Ruth had the fiery outburst and seemed to be ejected at a game intended for punching an umpire. His lack about self-control along with insistence on having a boost was piece of the main causes the guy was marketed to the Yankees in 1920. His Yankee years would likely prove very productive because he transitioned from a good pitcher towards a power-hitting outfielder, continuité the log books with his hitting accomplishments.
His achievements proved better, for on 1927, the person beat his own record which includes a career-high 62 home is in, batting. 356, driving in 164 goes, and slugging. 772. Within 1929, the exact Yankees started to be the first of all party to be able to use homogeneous numbers routinely, and considering that Ruth usually batted last ahead of Lou Gehrig, he or she was assigned the amount three or more. The very Yankees launched onto his telephone number about June 13, 1948. Just by 1934, Toddler Ruth have his / her cardiovascular established on handling the Yankees, but rather bought traded to Boston ma Décidé within 1935. This would always be his or her continue year like a player. His / her health had deteriorated as well as was actually spent.
Lout Ruth expired of pneumonia at often the regarding 53. An autopsy later shown that their body were found to be ravaged through the spread with cancer. The game of karate would hardly ever understand the loves with the pup once more.


Opinion|Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?
After all, wouldn't British counterterrorism officials responsible for Northern Ireland know the difference between Catholics and Protestants? In a remotely similar but far more lethal vein, the 1,400-year Sunni-Shiite rivalry is playing out in the streets of Baghdad, raising the specter of a breakup of Iraq into antagonistic states, one backed by Shiite Iran and the other by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states.
A complete collapse in Iraq could provide a haven for Al Qaeda operatives within striking distance of Israel, even Europe. And the nature of the threat from Iran, a potential nuclear power with protégés in the Gulf states, northern Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, is entirely different from that of Al Qaeda. It seems silly to have to argue that officials responsible for counterterrorism should be able to recognize opportunities for pitting these rivals against each other.
But so far, most American officials I've interviewed don't have a clue. That includes not just intelligence and law enforcement officials, but also members of Congress who have important roles overseeing our spy agencies. How can they do their jobs without knowing the basics?
My curiosity about our policymakers' grasp of Islam's two major branches was piqued in 2005, when Jon Stewart and other TV comedians made hash out of depositions, taken in a whistleblower case, in which top F.B.I. officials drew blanks when asked basic questions about Islam. One of the bemused officials was Gary Bald, then the bureau's counterterrorism chief. Such expertise, Mr. Bald maintained, wasn't as important as being a good manager.
Of course, I hadn't asked about reading Urdu or Mr. bin Laden's writings.
AND to his credit, Mr. Hulon, a distinguished agent who is up nights worrying about Al Qaeda while we safely sleep, did at least know that the vicious struggle between Islam's Abel and Cain was driving Iraq into civil war. But then we pay him to know things like that, the same as some members of Congress.
Representative Jo Ann Davis, a Virginia Republican who heads a House intelligence subcommittee charged with overseeing the C.I.A.'s performance in recruiting Islamic spies and analyzing information, was similarly dumbfounded when I asked her if she knew the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.
Did she know which branch Al Qaeda's leaders follow?
Did she think that it was important, I asked, for members of Congress charged with oversight of the intelligence agencies, to know the answer to such questions, so they can cut through officials' puffery when they came up to the Hill?
It's not all so grimly humorous. Some agency officials and members of Congress have easily handled my "gotcha" question. But as I keep asking it around Capitol Hill and the agencies, I get more and more blank stares. Too many officials in charge of the war on terrorism just don't care to learn much, if anything, about the enemy we're fighting. And that's enough to keep anybody up at night.
Jeff Stein is the national security editor at Congressional Quarterly.


Recall information for COSCO child & infant car seats. To see if your child's car seat is on recall, select the model car seat from the list below.
How can you tell if your child safety seat is safe?
Make sure the safety seat is less than 10 years old (preferably less than five) ), the expiration date stamped on the plastic has not passed, and it has never been used in a crash. You can't be sure about the history of a used safety seat unless you got it from a friend or relative. You will need the detailed instruction booklet (it can be ordered from the manufacturer if it is missing) to check that the safety seat has all of its parts and to find out how to use it correctly. Check for possible damage, such as cracks in the plastic, frayed straps, stiff buckles or harness adjusters. If the safety seat passes all of these criteria, you still need to check for possible recalls.


John graduated in 1991, from Macquarie University School of Chiropractic and worked in Sydney before establishing Terrigal Chiropractic and Natural Therapies Centre with Nicola in 1994. He has a special interest in Chiropractic Paediatrics, having done 3 years postgraduate study in Chiropractic Paediatrics.
John is particularly interested in children suffering from learning and behaviour difficulties, children experiencing recurrent ear infections or bed wetting, however his experience is across a multitude of childhood conditions.
He is married to Nicola and has three children, Malachi, Zali and Emerson. He is a past member of the Advisory Board to Sydney College of Chiropractic, was a tutor at Macquarie University School of Chiropractic for 10 years and is a Governor of Sydney College of Chiropractic.


I'm such an impulse buyer, it's something I really have to stop doing. Shopping is fun though, a little too much fun. I love everything you picked out, the color of the dress is great, as is the color of the pink bag!
That's a lovely dress and I'm sure it'll be really versatile. Recently I do think how many times will I wear it and can I wear it for day & night etc before buying something, trying to watch the pennies!
I impluse buy and then feel guilty! Idon't take it back though as I can't bare for anyone else to have it haha!It terrible!
The dress is gorgeous Gem!
Love this, and I think the shade of blue would look so pretty on you!
I'm definitely one for weighing up purchases, so much that I uuhm and aah loads and by the time I've decided to buy it the item has sold out! Gah.
The purple bag (and dress!) is gorgeous!
I agree, all about quality. I'm looking for plain items and buying less things like midi skirts. Classic all the way!
That dress is gorgeous, I love the pleated skirt and it's such a pretty colour. It definitely looks like it would be really versatile!
I'm much more of an impulse buyer, I buy things because I like them but when I get home I realise I've got nothing to wear them with! I really need to try and plan some outfits before I go shopping!


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Data Protected Latvia
Data Protected - Latvia
Contributed by Ellex Klavins
Last updated August 2018
The General Data Protection Regulation (EU) (2016/679)("GDPR").
In Latvia, the Personal Data Processing Law (the "DPL") entered into force on 5 July 2018, replacing the Law on the Protection of Personal Data of Natural Persons (the "DPA") of 2000.
The GDPR applies from 25 May 2018.
The DPL states that the Data State Inspectorate will continue to act as the supervisory authority in Latvia.
Data State Inspectorate (the "DSI")
Blaumana 11/13 – 11
Riga, LV-1011
www.dvi.gov.lv
The Data State Inspectorate will represent Latvia on the European Data Protection Board.
There is no obligation to notify regulators of any processing under the GDPR.
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The GDPR applies the processing of personal data in the context of the establishment of a controller or processor in the EU.
It also contains express extra-territorial provisions and will apply to controllers or processors based outside the EU that: (i) offer goods or services to individuals in the EU; or (ii) monitor individuals within the EU. Controllers and processors caught by these provisions will need to appoint a representative in the EU, subject to certain limited exemptions.
Is there a concept of a controller and processor?
Yes. The GDPR contains the concept of a controller, who determines the purpose and means of processing, and a processor, who just processes personal data on behalf of the controller.
Both controllers and processors are subject to the rules in the GDPR, but the obligations placed on processors are more limited.
Yes. The GDPR applies to both electronic records and structured hard copy records.
The GDPR does not apply to law enforcement activities which are instead subject to the Law Enforcement Directive. The GDPR also does not apply to areas of law that are outside the scope of Union law, such as national security, and does not apply to purely personal or household activity.
The DPL provides that in certain situations specific provisions of the GDPR will not apply, namely: (i) data subjects will not be entitled to receive certain information, where such information cannot be disclosed for reasons of national security and defence, public safety, in tax matters, in the field of anti-money laundering and terrorism financing or concerning supervision of financial market supervision or macroeconomic analysis. Data subjects will also not be entitled to learn of data recipients including state bodies pursuing criminal procedures and other institutions whose disclosure is prohibited by law; (ii) the rights of data subjects will not apply to data processing carried out pursuant to law to ensure official publications; (iii) the rights of data subjects under the GDPR must be used pursuant to the laws governing statistics and can be limited in certain circumstances where the application of the rights is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of the objective of that processing; (iv) the archiving rights of data subjects under the GDPR must be used pursuant to the laws governing archiving. If data processing is carried out for archiving purposes in the interests of the general public (e.g. for national heritage purposes), rights can be limited in certain circumstances where the application of the rights is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of the objective of that processing; (v) the rights of data subjects under the GDPR for the processing of personal data for scientific or historical research purposes in the interests of general public can be limited in certain circumstances where the application of the rights is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of the objective of that processing; (vi) the GDPR does not apply to data processing (except for GDPR article 5) for journalism purposes carried out pursuant to the applicable journalism laws and where the interests of the data subjects are not greater than the interests of the general public and observance with the GDPR would not be possible or it or would restrict the freedom of speech; (vii) the GDPR does not apply to cameras used for road traffic purposes (i.e. dash-cameras). However, it will be prohibited to share such data with third parties, except state institutions for the fulfilment of their legal functions and to other controllers for the protection of their legitimate interests. The DPL will also not apply to CCTV cameras if they are used by natural persons for personal or household reasons, except where cameras survey public areas on a large scale or where technical aids are used for structuring of information; (viii) special rules apply to the data processing of criminal law matters and data processing carried out by Eurojust and Europol; (ix) special exceptions apply when balancing the interests of the general public with basic rights of individuals; and (x) special requirements that must be observed when a privacy impact assessment is made by the Cabinet of Ministers.
Personal data is information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
This is a broad term and includes a wide range of information. The GDPR expressly states it includes online identifiers such as IP addresses and cookie identifiers.
No. However, information about sole traders and partnerships is likely to be personal data.
All processing of personal data must comply with all six general data quality principles. Personal data must be: (a) processed fairly and lawfully; (b) collected for specific, explicit and legitimate purposes and not processed in a manner incompatible with those purposes; (c) adequate, relevant and not excessive; (d) accurate and, where necessary, up to date; (e) kept in an identifiable form for no longer than necessary; and (f) kept secure.
The processing of personal data must also satisfy at least one condition for processing personal data. These conditions are that the processing is: (a) carried out with the data subject's consent; (b) necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject; (c) necessary for compliance with a legal obligation; (d) necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject; (e) necessary for the public interest or in the exercise of official authority; or (f) necessary for the controller's or recipient's legitimate interests, except where overridden by the interests of the data subject.
These rules are almost identical to the core requirements for processing personal data in the Data Protection Directive.
Obtaining consent will become much harder under the GDPR.
To be valid, consent must be in clear and plain language and, where sought in writing, separate from other matters. Consent must be based on affirmative action so pre-ticked boxes are not acceptable. Consent might not be valid if: (i) there is any detriment to the data subject for refusing; (ii) there is an imbalance of power; (iii) consent for multiple purposes is bundled together; or (iv) the consent is a condition of entering into a contract. Finally, consent can be withdrawn at any time.
In practice, other processing conditions should be relied on where possible. Consent will only be an appropriate processing condition if the individual has a genuine choice over the matter, for example, whether to be sent marketing materials.
The Article 29 Working Party has issued Guidelines on Consent (WP259).
Consent from a child in relation to online services will only be valid if authorised by a parent. A child is someone under 16 years old, though Member States may reduce this age to 13.
In Latvia, the DPL reduces the age at which a child can provide a valid consent to 13 years old.
Sensitive personal data is personal data consisting of racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation.
The inclusion of genetic and biometric data is new and an extension to the types of sensitive personal data in the Data Protection Directive.
Information about criminal offences is dealt with separately and is subject to even tighter controls.
Sensitive personal data may only be processed if a condition for processing sensitive personal data is satisfied. A condition arises where the processing: (a) is carried out with the data subject's explicit consent; (b) is necessary for a legal obligation in the field of employment law; (c) is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another person where the data subject is unable to give consent; (d) is carried out by a non-profit-seeking body and relates to members of that body or persons who have regular contact; (e) relates to data made public by the data subject; (f) is necessary for legal claims; (g) is for reasons of substantial public interest under EU or Member State law; (h) is necessary for healthcare reasons; (i) is necessary for public health reasons; or (j) is necessary for archiving, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes and is based on EU or Member State law.
The DPL does not introduce any specific national conditions for sensitive data processing, however there are general derogations on the application of the GDPR (see above) and these may also relate to sensitive data processing.
It is only possible to process information about criminal convictions or offences if: (a) it is carried out under the control of official authority; or (b) when the processing is authorised by EU or Member State law.
The DPL does not provide any specific national conditions for data processing relating to criminal offences. However, Latvian labour law provides that employees can be asked about previous convictions only in cases where it is relevant to the duties to be performed. The DSI clarifies that this only applies to positions which cannot be filled by persons with previous convictions (e.g. attorneys, people that work with children and financial and insurance sector management). In cases where it is permissible to ask for such information from a candidate, the employer in question can obtain such background information from the relevant state registers.
Background checks on other data subjects (i.e. suppliers, clients, etc.), will generally not be possible, unless the data subject voluntarily provides such information. However, given the general GDPR rule that processing of such information should be limited to specific persons and cases, it is questionable whether it is even permissible to ask data subjects to voluntarily provide this information.
Consent to process sensitive personal data must be explicit. The general restrictions on consent, set out above, will also apply. This suggests a degree of formality, such as ticking a box containing the express words "I consent". It is unlikely explicit consent could be obtained through a course of conduct.
Both controllers and processors must appoint a data protection officer if: (i) they are a public authority; (ii) their core activities consist of regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale; or (iii) their core activities consist of processing sensitive personal data on a large scale (including processing information about criminal offences).
Data protection officers must also be appointed where required by national law. The DPL does not specify any additional mandatory obligation to appoint data protection officers.
However, the DPL provides additional details about the appointment of a data protection officer. In order to serve as a data protection officer, a person can pass an examination procedure set up by the DSI, which certifies that the data protection officer meets the GDPR requirements. The DPL also allows controllers to choose another person, who has not taken the DSI exam, and appoint him or her as a data protection officer, provided that he or she meets the GDPR requirements.
What are the duties of the data protection officer?
The data protection officer must be involved in all data protection issues and cannot be dismissed or penalised for performing their role. The data protection officer must report directly to the highest level of management.
The Article 29 Working Party has issued Guidelines on Data Protection Officers (WP243).
The GDPR adds a new general accountability obligation under which you must not only comply with these new rules, but also be able to demonstrate you comply with them. This means ensuring suitable policies are in place supported by audit and training.
A privacy impact assessment must be conducted where "high risk" processing is carried out. This includes: (a) systematic and extensive profiling that produces legal effects or significantly affects individuals; (b) processing sensitive personal data on a large scale; and (c) systematic monitoring of a publicly accessible area on a large scale (e.g. CCTV).
The Article 29 Working Party has subsequently issued Guidelines on Data Protection Impact Assessments (WP 248). It suggests there are nine criteria to consider to determine whether to conduct a privacy impact assessment, and that an assessment should be made if two or more of those criteria are met. This is arguably wider than the criteria set out in the paragraph above.
In Latvia, the DSI has commented that impact assessments would be required for similar situations where currently controllers must register data processing under the DPA. The DSI issued a rather general guidance at the end of 2017 in relation to situations where impact assessments are needed and how to conduct them.
A controller must provide data subjects with a privacy notice setting out how the individual's personal data will be processed. The privacy notice must contain the enhanced transparency information.
The Article 29 Working Party has issued Guidelines on Transparency (WP260).
In Latvia, the DPL does not specify language requirements for privacy notices. In addition to the GDPR requirements, the Latvian official language law determines the language that must be used for the relevant processing activity. Namely, the Latvian language must be used in relation to consumers, public bodies and employees who do not have a command of the language in which the document is issued (or where they cannot be expected to have command of such language).
Data subjects will have a right to access copies of their personal data by making a written request to the controller. The initial request is free, though a charge can be made for subsequent requests. Controllers can refuse the request if it is manifestly unfounded or excessive. The response must be provided within a month, though this can be extended by two months if the request is complex.
Data subjects will also have a right to data portability where the condition for processing personal data is consent or the performance of a contract. It entitles individuals to obtain any personal data they have "provided" to the controller in a machine-readable format. Individuals can also ask for the data to be transferred directly from one controller to another. There is no right to charge fees for this service.
The Article 29 Working Party has issued Guidelines on data portability (WP242).
A data subject can ask that their data be deleted in certain circumstances. However, those circumstances are relatively limited, for example where the processing is based on consent, that consent is withdrawn and there are no other grounds for processing. Even where the right does arise, there are range of exemptions, for example where there is a legal obligation to retain the data.
Objection to direct marketing
A data subject can object to their personal data being processed for direct marketing purposes at any time. This includes the processing of their personal data for profiling purposes.
The GDPR contains a range of other rights, including a right to have inaccurate data corrected. There is also a right to object to processing being carried out in the performance of a public task or under the legitimate interests condition.
Finally, there are controls on taking decisions based solely on automated decision making that produce legal effects or similarly significantly affects the data subject. The Article 29 Working Party has issued Guidelines on Automated Decision Making and Profiling (WP251).
The GDPR contains a general obligation to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data.
In addition, controllers and processors must ensure, where appropriate: (i) the pseudonymisation and encryption of personal data; (ii) the ability to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of its information technology systems; (iii) the ability to restore the availability and access to personal data in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident; and (iv) a process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of technical and organisational measures for ensuring the security of the processing.
A controller must ensure that any processor it instructs will ensure adequate security for personal data and otherwise meet the requirements of the GDPR.
The controller must have written contracts with its processor containing the enhanced processor clauses.
A personal data breach must be notified to the relevant supervisory authority unless it is unlikely to result in a risk to data subjects. The notification must, where feasible, be made within 72 hours. If the personal data breach is a high risk for data subjects, those data subjects must also be notified.
The Article 29 Working Party has issued Guidelines on Personal Data Breach Notification (WP250).
Specific notice of breach laws apply to the electronic communications sector under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive.
The DSI has not issued local guidance on breach notifications but has been asked to comment on the Article 29 WP draft guidelines on breach notifications (WP250, dated 3 October 2017), which are and will most likely remain the only guidance on the subject. Additionally, a notice of breach form has been published by the DSI, which can be used to notify the DSI in relevant circumstances (however, the use of the form is not mandatory when notifying the DSI).
The GDPR contains a restriction on transborder dataflows. Transfers can take place if it: (i) is to a whitelisted country; (ii) is made pursuant to a set of Model Contracts; (ii) is made pursuant to binding corporate rules; (iv) is made to an importer who has signed up to an approved code or obtained an approved certification; or (v) is otherwise approved by the relevant supervisory authority.
Transfers are also possible if an individual derogation applies. These derogations allow a transfer if it: (i) is made with the data subject's explicit consent; (ii) is necessary for the performance of a contract with, or in the interests of, the data subject; (iii) is necessary or legally required on important public interest grounds, or for legal claims; (iv) is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject; (v) is made from a public register; or (vi) is made under the so-called minor transfer exemption.
The position is broadly the same as under the Data Protection Directive. One notable change is the introduction of the so-called minor transfer exemption, though that exemption will be very hard to rely on in practice.
The European Data Protection Board has issued Guidelines on derogations applicable to international transfers (2/2018).
In general, there is no need for prior approval from a supervisory authority. However, this depends on the justification for the transfer.
For example, there will be no obligation to get approval for the use of Model Contracts (though it is possible some supervisory authorities may want to be notified of their use). In contrast, it will be necessary to get approval to rely on binding corporate rules, and the supervisory authority must be informed of transfers made using the minor transfers exemption.
The GDPR places binding corporate rules on a statutory footing. It will be possible to obtain authorisation from one supervisory authority that will cover transfers from anywhere in the EU.
In Latvia binding corporate rules are currently recognised as permissible means of data transfers outside of the EU/EEA and the DPL does not provide any special local exemptions for them. Binding corporate rules will be therefore be recognised when the GDPR comes into effect.
The GDPR is intended to make data protection a boardroom issue. It introduces an antitrust-type sanction regime with fines of up to 4% of annual worldwide turnover or €20m, whichever is the greater. These fines apply to breaches of many of the provisions of the GDPR, including failure to comply with the six general data quality principles or carrying out processing without satisfying a condition for processing personal data.
A limited number of breaches fall into a lower tier and so are subject to fines of up to 2% of annual worldwide turnover or €10m, whichever is the greater. Failing to notify a personal data breach or failing to put an adequate contract in place with a processor fall into this lower tier.
The Article 29 Working Party has issued Guidelines on administrative fines (WP253).
Latvian criminal law provides that an individual who has committed criminal acts involving personal data can be imprisoned for up to 5 years. Criminal liability can be imposed where data has been processed: (i) illegitimately and resulted in material damage; (ii) for the purpose of vengeance, acquisition of property or blackmail; or (iii) using violence, threats or in bad faith, or using deceit in order to perform illegal activities involving personal data.
Data subjects have a right to compensation in respect of material and non-material damage.
Regulators will have a range of other powers and sanctions at their disposal. This includes investigative powers, such as the ability to demand information from controllers and processors, and to carry out audits. They will also have corrective powers enabling them to issue warnings or reprimands, to enforce an individual's rights and to issue a temporary or permanent ban on processing.
According to the DPL, the DSI will have the right to visit real estate such as production facilities, warehouses, commercial and other non-residential premises in the territory of Latvia owned, under the possession of or used by natural or legal persons to inspect the data controller's compliance with laws within the competence of the DSI. Before visiting the place of inspection, the DSI shall inform the data controller about the purpose of the planned visit, time and place and shall request the presence of the controller's authorized representative.
In Latvia, there is no current enforcement practice in relation to the GDPR. However, the enforcement of the DPA is instructive.
According to the latest public report of 2016, the DSI performed a total of approximately 600 (out of approximately 500 planned) reviews/inspections of possible violations of the DPA. Violations were established in 22% of cases. Fines for those infringements were imposed only in 65 cases and the total amount of fines imposed for violations amounted to €8,122. This is a rather low number, given that the DSI may impose fines of up to €14,000 in a single infringement case. The latest report does not break down the most typical types of infringements, and merely states that fines were imposed with respect to DPA violations and failure to provide information to the DSI.
Latvian ePrivacy laws are contained in the Electronic Communications Law (the "ECL") and the Law on Information Society Services (the "LISS"), both of which implemented Article 13 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive. The ECL stipulates the allocation of supervisory functions for the electronic communications market. The ECL provides for the protection of user data, including the protection of personal data in the field of electronic communications services. The LISS ensures free movement of information services in the EEA countries, specifies the cases in which the service supplier may offer information society services, lists the scope of information to be provided to the recipient of a service, as well as determines the liability and obligations of suppliers of agency services. Compliance with the law is supervised by the Consumer Rights Protection Centre (the "CRPC") and the DSI.
The ECL and LISS were amended on 19 May 2011 to implement the amendments to the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive.
The LISS requires that a cookie can only be placed on the end-user's device after the user has been provided with clear and comprehensive information, in accordance with the DPA, about the purposes of the processing, and has consented to that use. Consent is needed for the use of cookies, unless the cookie is strictly necessary for the provision of a service requested by that subscriber or user or for transfer of information within an electronic communications network. The LISS does not expressly refer to the use of browser settings as a means of obtaining consent. There is an express requirement for consent to be "prior" to the use of a cookie.
Currently, there is no official regulatory guidance from DSI about the use of cookies. Meanwhile, DSI own website contains a cookie notice and it is therefore possible to draw conclusions from their practice. Although the notice provides for option to accept or deny cookies, it also states that by continuing to use the site the person accepts cookies (i.e. even without expressly accepting). In the cookie notice, it is possible to opt-out from preference, statistical and marketing cookies, however this is done based on an opt-out, rather than opt-in, approach.
Sending commercial notices to an individual contact by e-mail is prohibited under Latvian law if the recipient of a service has not given a prior, free and clear consent to the receipt thereof. In accordance with the LISS, a commercial notice means any notice in electronic form that is intended for direct or indirect advertising of goods and services. However, a notice providing direct access to the general information on a service supplier and its activities, for example, a domain name or e-mail address, is not deemed to be a commercial notice.
Direct marketing by e-mail to corporate subscribers (legal entities) is permitted as long as an option to unsubscribe is provided in each e-mail. There is no need for prior approval.
The similar products and services exemption applies. The LISS also prohibits the use of e-mail to send commercial notices if the identity of the sender is hidden or concealed or an invalid e-mail address is used.
The sender must also include the eCommerce information.
Giving commercial notices to individual subscribers by telephone is prohibited under Latvian law if the recipient of a service has not given a prior, free and clear consent to the receipt thereof.
The law does not require obtaining prior approval from legal entities to use marketing by telephone. However, requests to discontinue such calls in future still have to be respected.
Invalid or concealed phone numbers cannot be used when marketing by telephone.
Ellex Klavins
Sarmis Spilbergs
Tel: +(37)167 814 856
www.ellex.lv
Data State Inspectorate
Personal Data Processing Law