text:
FlotillaHyves1
UNRWA & Refugees
UNRWA & Refugees 2018 >
UNRWA & Refugees 2017
Palestinian Education
Palestinian Education 2018 >
Palestinian Education 2017
Palestinian Economy
Palestinian Economy 2018 >
Palestinian Economy 2017
Palestinian water
Palestinian water 2018 >
Palestinian water 2017
Palestinian Gas
Palestinian Gas 2018
Palestinian Gas 2016/17
Internet 2018 >
Fire in and across Palestine
Fire in and across Palestine 2018 >
Fire in and across Palestine 2017
Palestinian New Buildings
Palestinian New Buildings 2018 >
Palestinian New Buildings 2017
Boycott Israel 2018 >
Boycott Israel 2017
New Weapons
New Weapons 2018 >
New Weapons 2017
Jews vs Zionism
Jews vs Zionism 2018 >
Jews vs Zionism 2017
Breaking the Silence 2018
Church 2018 >
Church 2016
US America
US America 2018 >
US America 2017
US-America 2012
Syria 2018 >
Syria 2012 nov
Syria 2012 oct
Syria 2012 sept
Egypt 2018 >
Lebanon 2018 >
Jordan 2018 >
Iran 2018 >
Turkey 2017 >
Freedom Flotilla
Freedom Flotilla 2017-18 >
Freedom Flotilla 2016
Mavi Marmara
Mavi Marmara 2015 >
Mavi Marmara 2014
UK-Britain
UK-Britain 2018 >
UK-Britain 2017
The Netherlands 2018 >
The Netherlands 2017
Anti Semitism?
Anti Semitism? 2018 >
Anti Semitism? 2017
"Nice" Rabbis
"Nice" Rabbis 2018 >
"Nice" Rabbis 2017
Pictures/names of martyrs
Israel bans British-Palestinian professor, citing new BDS law
Adam, Lina and Kamel Hawwash on a previous holiday in Jerusalem.
Israel has banned British-Palestinian professor and boycott campaigner Kamel Hawwash from visiting relatives in Jerusalem.
Hawwash told The Electronic Intifada he was "devastated." Israeli authorities divided his family after they had flown into Tel Aviv on Friday.
An Israeli officer took him aside and told him, "we have a problem with you," Hawwash said. The officer cited Hawwash's support for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and a new Israeli law against the BDS movement.
The officer asked Hawwash, "Do you know about the BDS law?"
The new law gives Israel the ability to bar entry to anyone who speaks in favor of boycotts of Israel. It applies even to limited boycotts of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, all of which are illegal under international law.
Hawwash's wife and five-year-old son were allowed to enter, but he was denied entry and put on a plane to Brussels a few hours later. Hawwash had flown from Birmingham to Tel Aviv, via Brussels.
His passport was confiscated and given to the pilot.
"I went and told my wife I wasn't going to be admitted, and she obviously broke down. My son was completely bewildered as to what was happening," Hawwash said.
The family had been headed for Jerusalem for their annual holiday in Palestine, a tradition that now seems to be at a forcible end.
Hawwash says he does not engage in political work during his trips to the family's homeland.
Family torn apart
While Hawwash's wife Lina holds only the Israeli identification card issued to Palestinians in Jerusalem, Hawwash holds a British passport.
"I was never going to deny her the chance to see her family, so she went in," Hawwash said.
"My mother-in-law – immediately when she heard – said to my wife, 'oh my God, that means I'm never going to see Kamel before I die,'" said Hawwash. "And I have uncles who are in their seventies who could pass away any moment."
Hawwash has long been a leading figure in the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign and is a member of its executive committee. He is also an engineering professor at the University of Birmingham.
This was the first time has been denied entry, despite years of family visits.
The Israeli officer who questioned him accused him of belonging to an "anti-Israel organization," said Hawwash.
"Really what hurts is seeing people who've taken our land stopping us from going back to it," Hawwash told The Electronic Intifada. "The colonizer saying that you can't come to your homeland."
Scandalous British inaction
The Israeli officer gave Hawwash a Hebrew print-out, claiming it contained messages from his Twitter account. Hawwash replied that he would have to see the English originals before he could comment.
At the end of the questioning, he was handed a document citing Israeli law, barring his entry. The document is published below, with personal details redacted.
An article about Hawwash published by the Israeli settler news agency Arutz Sheva quotes Aryeh Deri, Israel's interior minister, alleging there have been "attempts by those who act to boycott Israel to enter its borders and thus strengthen their operations."
Hawwash called a British consulate, but the authorities were little help, telling him, "Well if you've been denied entry there's nothing we can do."
Richard Burden, a lawmaker representing Birmingham, is demanding the UK government speak out against the anti-boycott law, according to a statement issued by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Burden said that it is "utterly shocking" Hawwash may never see his family in Palestine again due to the anti-BDS law.
"The relaxed attitude our ministers are showing to Israel's actions is scandalous," he added.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said in the statement: "The bottom line is that Israel is using its new boycott law to ban foreign human rights activists. The BDS movement peacefully pressures Israel to comply with international law and cease human rights violations."
Hawwash's parents were born in Jerusalem. But they were living in Saudi Arabia – where his father worked – during the war of June 1967. Israel's military occupation of Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank began during that war.
Like many other Palestinians who were outside the country at the time, Hawwash was denied a Jerusalem identity card.
On Monday, Israel barred Anuar Majluf, the director of the Palestinian Federation of Chile, as he traveled with a delegation to his ancestral homeland for Easter.
In March the Palestine Solidarity Campaign's chair Hugh Lanning became the first known victim of the anti-BDS law, as Israel barred him from taking a four-day visit to occupied Jerusalem.
After the ban, Lanning, a former elected official in the UK's Public and Commercial Services union, received messages of support from train drivers' union ASLEF, the UK's largest union Unite, as well as his own union.
Unite's general secretary Len McCluskey said in a statement that "the new law to ban entry to foreigners who advocate the non-violent boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, violates fundamental freedoms which are essential to a democracy."
He said that Israel was not behaving like a democratic country and called on the British government to protest against the new policy.
Princess Nokia Cancels Show at Israeli Music Festival Amid BDS Pressure
Organizers subsequently canceled the Kalamazoo Festival and promised to refund tickets.
On March 26, the Israeli Kalamazoo Festival announced that Destiny Frasqueri, also known as Princess Nokia, canceled her upcoming performance at the Haoman 17, a nightclub in Tel Aviv.
"Under extreme pressure from [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement], Destiny decided to cancel her arrival in Israel. In recent weeks we have concentrated our efforts on trying to change her mind… but without much success," a statement by the festival reads.
Festival officials also revealed that the entire event was canceled consequently and all tickets would be refunded. At least eight other musicians were scheduled to perform alongside Frasqueri at Kalamazoo.
Boycott from Within, a group of Israeli citizens who advocate for the Palestinian-led BDS movement, wrote to Frasqueri on Facebook in March:
"You are an artist dedicated to uplifting and empowering women, people of color, LGBTQ persons, and your work speaks volumes to the effort to dismantle white supremacy and misogyny. Please remember that among those are also Palestinians dying under Israeli apartheid, calling [on] you to stand in solidarity with them and boycott Israel. Please cancel your show."
The group also responded to news of the cancellation:
"We would like to thank you for adopting a moral stance and [refusing] to take part in apartheid and discrimination against indigenous people by not performing in Israel… We hope to see more conscious artists like you take principled stances against oppression and injustices, and follow in your footsteps."
The BDS movement is a global, non-violent, social justice movement that advocates boycotting, divesting from, and sanctioning Israel and the companies that do business with it until Israel complies with international law and respects Palestinian human rights.
An important facet of the BDS movement is its call for "international cultural organizations and workers to boycott and/or work towards the cancellation of events, activities, agreements, or projects involving Israel, its lobby groups or its cultural institutions." The approach is meant to challenge the way in which Israel uses culture as a form of propaganda to whitewash or justify the occupation.
US and Israeli UN Ambassadors Vow to Eliminate BDS
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said on Wednesday that Israel would "keep fighting" until it "eliminates BDS completely."
"There is a new approach [to fight BDS] and it is being heard in the halls of the UN Indeed," Danon told 2,000 attendees at a pro-Israel UN event, according to Days of Palestine.
"We have seen a lot of legislation since the first conference; 17 states have enacted anti-BDS legislation and we are seeing more groups fighting back against BDS," he added.
Danon's remarks echoed stronger remarks about the issue by US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley.
Haley said at the same event: "The effort to delegitimize the state of Israel being waged on college campuses and the anti-Israel obsession at the UN are one in the same. They both seek to deny Israel's right to exist."
She continued: "They are both efforts to intimidate US friends and embolden her enemies. They are both extensions of an ancient hatred".
The ambassador added: "And how tragic is it that of all countries in the world to condemn for human rights violations, these voices choose to single out Israel.
"We should boycott North Korea. We should sanction Iran. We should divest from Syria. Not Israel. It makes absolutely no sense. And it has no connection to any reasonable definition of justice. You can let the BDS know that the United States has Israel's back."
G4S Dropped by Doctors' Syndicate in Beirut
Last week, the Doctors' Syndicate in Beirut decided to end its relationship with G4S, one of the world's largest multinational security companies, following a campaign by activists in Lebanon concerned with the company's ongoing complicity with Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights.
The "Lebanese Campaign to Boycott the Supporters of Israel" has announced that the decision by the Syndicate to not renew its contracts with G4S is an important milestone in the global campaign against the company. The group noted that several other institutions, including the Arab Bank, UNICEF and the Dunes Complex, in the Verdun neighborhood of Beirut, have also distanced themselves from G4S over the past few months.
The global campaign against G4S was launched in 2012, after a call by Palestinian political prisoners to boycott the company over its role at the time in providing equipment and services to Israeli prisons, where Palestinian political prisoners are routinely held without trial and subjected to torture and ill-treatment. G4S has also been involved in servicing Israeli military checkpoints and illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land.
Under strong pressure from BDS activists participating in the international Stop G4S campaign, G4S has, for the last several years, been losing major deals and investments around the world. In 2016, the company was forced to sell most of its business in Israel, but still services the Israeli Police Academy and invests in the Shikun & Binui group which builds illegal settlements. As such, G4S remains complicit in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, and will continue to be a BDS target due to its persisting complicity.
The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society and the leadership of the global BDS movement, welcomed this victory and saluted the efforts of activists in Lebanon. The BNC further confirms that the campaign against G4S will continue, both regionally and globally, until G4S completely ends its complicity in Israel's regime of apartheid, military occupation and settler-colonialism.
Page: 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1


text:
Home » Spirituality » Spiritual Odysseys
God's Ferrari
Mar 5, 2016 | by Roger Goldberg
How I fell in love with Judaism, even the detailed laws.
"Imagine you are in a car with your twin. One of you represents your physical drives; the other, your spiritual drives and your intellect. Your two selves are forever stuck together in this car, steering it in opposite directions. Which 'you' do you want to be in the driver's seat?"
So started my first class by Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky, head of Shapell's College of Judaic Studies, where I am currently immersed in 10+ hours of daily Torah study.
Almost exactly two years ago I listened to a similar lecture at Aish HaTorah Yeshiva in Jerusalem's Old City, given by Rabbi Motty Berger. I can only describe the several days I spent there, listening to brilliant minds like Dr. Gerald Schroeder (a nuclear physicist with a Ph.D. from MIT turned Torah scholar), Rabbi Gavriel Friedman (who often rapped his pop-culture-filled lectures without missing a beat) and Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser (the surfing rabbi), as an experience akin to falling in love. For the first time in my life, Judaism was explained to me in a way that I could connect to.
Like so many Jews who grow up non-religious, I had a completely distorted understanding of what Judaism was all about.
Like so many Jews who grow up non-religious, I had a completely distorted understanding of what Judaism was all about, and that distorted understanding stemmed entirely from a simple lack of information. The Judaism I discovered during those few days at Aish HaTorah contained gems far brighter and more profound than any I had come across in my meandering search for Truth up until that point. It was a supremely comforting feeling to realize that I was a living link in a chain of belief and practice that for millennia has transformed, and continues to transform humankind for the better. It was also somewhat terrifying, for I had been given a glimpse of Truth; a Truth that demanded adherence to a very specific set of rules and beliefs.
What then, was I to do? Up until that point in my personal road trip, my hedonistic self had been in control of the car. There is no denying that it was fun, but I couldn't shake the gnawing feeling that there was something more to life than merely satisfying my desires.
I had so many questions and felt like my world was in disarray. In trying to clarify my confusion, I spoke with rabbis and others who had been on the path longer than I. One common theme that emerged from these conversations was that the best way to fully understand Judaism was by doing the mitzvot, the things that the Torah requires Jews to do. As Rabbi Benjamin Blech writes in Understanding Judaism, "Judaism is a religion of deed, not creed." It is what you do (or don't do) that is far more important than what you believe.
As I began taking on some of these mitzvot, I started to understand what everyone had been saying. At first, the thought of giving up my weekends in order to keep Shabbat sounded like a death sentence for my social life, but after some time, I started to see the value in taking 24 hours off from life's rat race and spending it with like-minded people, enjoying each other's company and talking about what we are doing in this world with the short flash of time we have been given.
The thought of having to shut it all down for one day started to seem like a fantastic idea.
A few more Shabbatot spent in wholesome, soul-enriching interaction with people whose lives were infused with a sense of meaning and purpose, and I started to wonder who the crazy ones were — those who never consciously and deliberately took a break from their phones and virtual social networks, or those who shut everything down for 24 hours no matter what, in order to remind themselves of where they were going and why? The thought of having to shut it all down for one day started to seem like a fantastic idea. People in the tech world also agreed, as the concept of a "tech Shabbat," popularized by filmmaker and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain, began to take root.
The more I learned and the more mitzvot I took on, the more I realized that there was real wisdom in Judaism that served as a blueprint for how to live a happy and meaningful life. All the grand and beautiful ideas that Judaism gave birth to, like the unity of everything, the importance of guarding one's speech, helping the needy, engaging in acts of kindness, of focusing on something larger than oneself, all resonated with me on a deep soul level.
After some time leading an observant lifestyle by keeping Shabbat and keeping kosher, I realized that if I really wanted to commit to this life, I needed to build a foundation of Jewish knowledge, so I moved to Israel in October 2015 and enrolled at Shapell's Darche Noam. As I started learning more about halacha (Jewish law), I began to get turned off by all the rules that govern every minute action of an observant Jew's life. Does God really care if I clip my nails in a particular order, or if I tie my left shoe before my right one? Does it really matter if I hang my mezuzah horizontally or vertically?
An interesting thought came to mind that has helped me deal with these questions, and in general with the dichotomy between the big, beautiful ideas that turned me on to Judaism, and the seemingly nonsensical details that I don't quite understand.
Perhaps we can understand the relationship between Judaism's grand, civilization-shaping ideas, and its less comprehensible details if we take a look at our universe and how it works. At the time of the publication of Einstein's theory of relativity, the world stood in awe at the elegance and beauty of the universe, and of the predictable laws that govern it. Einstein himself said that he felt like he had peeked into the mind of God.
But when scientists shifted their focus from the grand, beautiful theory and predictable laws governing the movement of large celestial bodies, to reality at the subatomic level, a chaotic picture emerged. Particles seemed to pop in and out of existence, and all of the laws which painted an orderly, sensical picture of the universe when examined on a grand scale, totally broke down when examined on a minute scale.
The beauty, predictability, and elegance of relativity theory gave way to confusion, chaos, and seeming meaninglessness at the subatomic level.
This duality isn't something from a science fiction novel; rather it is the very fabric of the reality in which we exist. If the Torah is the blueprint from which everything was created, it would make sense that it should contain something akin to its own version of relativity theory (the grand, beautiful ideas that gave me the sense of awe at discovering the Truth), as well as its own version of quantum mechanics (the details, the halachot) that many Jews, including myself, struggle to find meaning in.
The detailed laws form the foundation from which the grand, sweeping, elegant ideas emerge.
The Torah must contain this dichotomy because it is part of the nature of the universe. If altering the flight path of an electron in one part of the universe affects the path of another electron in a different part of the universe, then maybe clipping my nails in a particular order, or putting on my shoes in a particular way, or any of the as-of-yet nonsensical things actually do have an impact on something, somewhere in the cosmic mix.
Rather than viewing the detailed laws as an impediment to the Ultimate Truth, I am beginning to understand that like their subatomic counterparts, they form the foundation from which the grand, sweeping, elegant ideas emerge. Without the seemingly chaotic and erratic world of quantum mechanics, our universe would fall apart, and without the detailed laws, Judaism would fall apart.
One thing is for sure, whatever I thought Judaism was about when I started this journey is in actuality infinitely deeper. Getting the chance to immerse myself in Torah and Talmud, wrestling with its ideas and multi-layered meanings, is like taking a peek under the hood of God's Ferrari, a Ferrari that I am increasingly driving with my intellect.
Roger Goldberg
Roger Goldberg was born in Israel to American and Russian parents, and grew up in Columbus, Ohio. In 2010 Roger co-founded the Reward Volunteers iPhone app, which was acquired in 2012 by Vermont based Cabot Creamery Cooperative. After 9 years of living in Brooklyn, Roger decided it was finally time to come home, and to that end, made Aliyah in October 2015.
Feeling God's Love
God Loves the Brokenhearted
From Jesus to Judaism
Judaism, Masturbation and Me
My Journey to Judaism
A Comedian's Return to Judaism
(3) shilvib puri, March 20, 2016 11:58 PM
TRUTH WRITTEN IN BEAUTY CHARM
YES, EVEN THE DETAILED LAWS ARE LOVELY INDEED !!!!!!! !!!!!!! !!!!!!!
(2) Anonymous, March 11, 2016 6:56 PM
Shabbat is the Best
Although it wasn't easy I went without my cell phone 6 days in March. Shabbat and days before I got a new phone. Shabbat is a day for rest in my house. Never cooking or driving or electronics. Walking to shul in the rule here. You can surely do it if you want. It's only 25 hours except when there is Yom Tovim attached.
Deep.
Most Popular In Spirituality
20 Favorite Jewish Quotes
God's Unconditional Love: A Meditation
Judaism in the Eyes of a Non-Jew
19 Great Jewish Sayings
How To Get Your Prayers Answered
Receive Weekly Spirituality Emails
Sign up to our Spirituality Jewsletter.
Painting God
Judaism: Opening the Closed Door
Loving Michael

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Showing posts with label world chess champion. Show all posts
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen asks Fans to Connect via his Just-Launched YouTube Channel
Posted by World Chess Championship 2013 News Blog Friday, February 7, 2014
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen has tweeted that he has launched his YouTube Channel where he would be posting chess videos of interest including those of his own of course. We've just clicked subscribe without a second thought. Have you?
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen Simul Video: Nordic Semi HRM Challenge at CES 2014 in Las Vegas
Posted by World Chess Championship 2013 News Blog Tuesday, February 4, 2014
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen demolished 20 chess players in a special simul in Las Vegas recently. It was thanks to Nordic Semiconductor kick-starts sponsorship with the World Chess Champion by hosting a HRM chess tournament at the CES in Las Vegas. Contributing with its ultra low power wireless connectivity solutions within heart rate monitoring, Nordic aims to add a new level of excitement to the chess sport. Here's the video and read the full report in our earlier post: Magnus Carlsen Crushes 20 in Las Vegas Chess Simul.
Bill Gates demolished by World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in 9 Moves on Skavlan Talk Show
Posted by World Chess Championship 2013 News Blog Saturday, January 25, 2014
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen demolished the second richest man on the planet, Bill Gates, in a chess game lasting just nine moves and a few seconds over a minute this Thursday.
Screenshot: Skavlan.com
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen took virtually no time in demolishing the world's richest man for a long, long time, Bill Gates, Thursday night on a Norwegian-Swedish television talk show hosted by Norwegian journalist Fredrik Skavlan. It was a checkmate in nine moves and just about one minute, 20 or so seconds. Gates had already said, "The outcome is a foregone conclusion," as the chessboard was being brought to the stage.
Carlsen said, "He was a bit unlucky and eventually fell to my tactics, but he otherwise made good, healthy moves. I think with a little more time, he could certainly be a pretty good player."
"When you are not smart?" Fredrik Skavlan asked Bill Gates. "When I play chess against him," responded the Microsoft founder, nodding towards Carlsen. "Want to try?" asks Skavlan. "The outcome is a foregone conclusion, responded Gates. The program, clips of which Reuters received in advance, was recorded on Wednesday in London, Norwegian TV NRK said.
Read a Reuters story at this link and a Yahoo story at this link.
Bill Gates was doing pretty okay till he decided to get greedy and go for a piece overlooking a single checkmate in one! Replay the game below:
Gates, Bill - Carlsen, Magnus
Site: Skavlan Talk Show
[...] 1.e4 ♘c6 2.♘f3 d5 3.♗d3 ♘f6 4.exd5 ♕xd5 5.♘c3 ♕h5 6.O-O ♗g4 7.h3 ♘e5 8.hxg4 ♘fxg4 9.♘xe5 ♕h2#
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in Conversation with Tech Entrepreneur Peter Thiel Video:
There is no missing this fantastic interview/conversation between World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel hosted by the Silicon Valley Bank and the Churchill Club.
Magnus Carlsen, World Chess Champion
Peter Thiel, Technology entrepreneur and investor; Partner, Founders Fund; Co-founder, Mithril Capital Management
Magnus Carlsen took the world by storm as a child prodigy, becoming an international Grand Master at 13. At 19, he was the youngest chess player to be ranked number one in the world, and at 22, in November 2013, he defeated five-time former world champion Viswanathan Anand. Now, at age 23, Magnus holds a record rating of 2872.
Be inspired by Magnus as he is interviewed by entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel, former US-rated Chess Master with a lifelong passion for chess. Topics covered are Magnus' views on the game, his experience winning the championship, and the role he believes chess can play in advancing young people's critical thinking, social skills, and ability to achieve academically.
Prior to the onstage program, Magnus played in a six-board simultaneous chess demonstration. Participants entered in a drawing benefiting First Move, a dynamic non-profit organization that brings chess to second and third graders across the country—and the winner became one of the six brave players.
Program Partners:
First Move
Gold Sponsor:
Innovation Norway
The Mendell Family Foundation
* The Churchill Club
Igniting Conversations to Encourage Innovation and Economic GrowthThis is our focus: to cultivate a one-stop-shop of world-class people—people like yourself—that ignites the kinds of conversations that lead to new ideas, enlivened dreams and personal motivation. A tall order, for sure, but one we've been successful at for 25 years.
Over the past two-and-a-half decades, the Churchill Club has hosted industry and government leaders and luminaries such as Marc Andreessen, Steve Ballmer, Craig Barrett, Ursula Burns, John Chambers, Jim Clark, Bill Clinton, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Andy Grove, William Hewlett, Arianna Huffington, Bill Joy, Dean Kamen, John McCain, Scott McNealy, Lew Platt, Eric Schmidt, and many more.
It's an impressive list, but it would be no more than a roster if we weren't committed to the idea of an independent forum that facilitates the open and timely exchange of ideas, opinions and viewpoints among business leaders and innovators. At the Churchill Club, collaborators and competitors meet on stage to share and discuss their newest thinking. They commit to have unscripted conversations that go beyond the hype. Attendees have the opportunity to ask questions directly of speakers, uncensored by the moderator.
* Preview at Chess Magazine Black and White
* Magnus Carlsen $1 Million Critical Thinking Grant with First Move
World Chess Champion Joins America's Foundation for Chess: First Move Announces Magnus Carlsen Grants
Posted by World Chess Championship 2013 News Blog Thursday, January 16, 2014
World Chess Champion Makes a Winning Move with America's Foundation for Chess
SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Jan. 16, 2014 -- /PRNewswire/ -- How will Magnus Carlsen top 2013, the history-making year he became World Chess Champion and holds the highest rating of all time? He's joining forces with America's Foundation for Chess (AF4C) to bring the First Move chess program into elementary school classrooms as a tool for enhancing critical and creative thinking skills.
As part of this effort, Magnus Carlsen has agreed to be Honorary Chairman for the non-profit joining a prestigious group of sponsors including Paul Tudor Jones, Silicon Valley Bank, Concur, Qualcomm, ZMD and Two Sigma. This initial grant is the first step toward raising $5M to bring the First Move program to half a million students by 2017. Optimized for second and third grade classrooms, this formal and interactive chess curriculum gives teachers a powerful tool to engage children in learning chess while providing critical skills that will benefit them for years to come.
Carlsen has seen first-hand how First Move engages students, regardless of gender or background. He also recognizes the importance of teaching chess during the school day to give every student the opportunity to learn and benefit from the centuries old game.
"I love the way chess empowers kids," said Carlsen. "I consider First Move to be the most strategic way to give kids an advantage and help them live up to their full potential."
As Honorary Chairman, Carlsen will announce his partnership with America's Foundation for Chess tonight at a special event hosted by Silicon Valley Bank and the Churchill Club, sponsored by Innovation Norway. Magnus will play six people simultaneously while blindfolded followed by an interview with avid chess player Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Facebook investor, to talk about Magnus' rise in the chess world, the value of chess and the impact on kids.
About Magnus Carlsen: At age 23, Carlsen's already storied career makes him a dream champion for the cause. Born in 1990 in Norway, Magnus became a Grandmaster at thirteen years and four months. He was the youngest player ever to be ranked number one in the world at the age of 19. In January 2013, he achieved the highest rating in the history of chess beating Garry Kasparov's legendary record from 1999. In November 2013, he became the World Chess Champion making him the first World Champion from a Western country since Bobby Fischer in 1972. His many accolades extend beyond the chess world; but the game remains his passion, and he welcomes the chance to share it.
For more information about Magnus Carlsen, visit his website at http://magnuscarlsen.com.
About First Move: America's Foundation for Chess developed the First Move curriculum based on the belief that chess is good for kids and schools need powerful tools to engage students and teach critical thinking skills. The interactive program currently reaches over 80,000 students in 24 states and four countries, and builds coveted skills both on and beyond the chess board, including concentration and focus, self-motivation, memory-building and the ability to analyze, plan and execute.
"We worked hard to develop an engaging and turnkey program that helps teachers inspire new avenues of thinking, levels the playing field and builds confidence," said Erik Anderson, Founder of America's Foundation for Chess. "The program has been a great success; we have schools on a wait list and over 300,000 kids in line to receive First Move."
America's Foundation for Chess encourages districts and elementary schools that are interested in First Move and the Magnus Carlsen Critical Thinking Grant to contact them at info@af4c.org or to visit http://af4c.org.
SOURCE First Move
Magnus Carlsen Crushes 20 in Las Vegas Chess Simul with 'Steady Heart Rate' at Nordic Semi Exhibition
Posted by World Chess Championship 2013 News Blog Friday, January 10, 2014
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen easily beat 20 chess players at an exhibition chess simul at CES, Las Vegas, on Friday. The event was based on an innovative idea by Nordic Semiconductor - Magnus Carlsen's sponsors.
Photo: NRK.no/Nordic Semi Facebook Page
The idea was to hook the World Chess Champion and all the players with heart-monitoring, low-energy, bluetooth equipment. Nordic Semiconductor stated, the World Chess Champion was up to the challenge and beat everyone with a steady and normal heart rate. Nordic Semiconductor stated on their Facebook page, "We believe Heart Rate Monitoring will add a new element to chess tournaments both for the audience and the players. Will our new thinking with the #HRMchess tournament at International CES?"
A screen grab from a VG TV video (and report) showing heart rate of World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and his opponents during the simul.
Yes, the World Chess Champion's heart rate remained steady as he went around beating all the 20 players.
NRK.no also had a neat report on the event with a cool video of the World Chess Champion crushing his simul opponents! The report quoted Magnus Carlsen as saying, "I think it was fun to watch the pulse rate of the people. That was entertainment for me." Magnus Carlsen has said he would be interested in using the pulse monitor at the upcoming Zurich Chess Tournament 2014.
Nordic Semiconductor commercial director said the gadget would be great for the audience at a chess tournament. For example, the audience would be able to see how a chess player's heart reacts to a blunder or mistake
Nordic Semiconductor is an industry leader in ultra low-power wireless devices. With a world-class mixed-signal R&D team Nordic develops innovative ground-breaking devices for Bluetooth low energy, ANT and 2.4GHz proprietary markets. The ARM Cortex M-series lie at the core of Nordic's highly flexible, ultra low-power wireless SoC solutions. Ultra-low power (ULP) wireless sensors that are small enough to be worn on the body are transforming the sports and fitness world by making it easy to track and log training data – such as heart-rate, speed, and distance – and share the results on-line with others.
This benefits everyone from elite athletes seeking to fine-tune their training regimes to those who simply want to get fit and stay motivated by seeing the results of their hard work. Typical products in this segment are:Wearable sensors, Heart-rate belts, Speed-distance foot pods, GPS pods, Pedometers Activity sensors, Bike cadence sensors, Bike speed sensors, Bike power sensors and Weight scales.
The International CES is the world's largest tradeshow for consumer technology and America's largest annual tradeshow of any kind. With more than four decades of success, the International CES reaches across global markets, connects the "who's who" of the industry and enables consumer electronics (CE) innovations to grow and thrive.
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen at Sports Gala: I will Continue to be One Step ahead of Others
Posted by World Chess Championship 2013 News Blog Monday, January 6, 2014
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen continues to overwhelm Norway (and the world) with his wow factor. The World Chess Champion - even though not eligible to win the Athlete of the Year Award - at Norway's annual Sports Gala (Idrettsgallaen) on Saturday night - won in every category he was nominated for.
Carlsen won for
- Name of the Year
- Open Class
- Top sporting personalities (peer-nominated) shared with Norway Golf Queen Suzann Pettersen.
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen quotes:- There are some who've complained that I haven't prepared a speech. No, I haven't prepared a third speech. That's what I can say. Now I've already thanked those who should be thanked."- In his earlier speeches, Carlsen paid tribute to his family, the jury, and co-winner Pettersen. - "I will continue to be one step ahead of all the others. I don't want to be a world champion who doesn't care so much about tournaments, but just sits and clutches onto the title."
Golf star Suzann Pettersen and chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen share the athletes' choice award. Photo: newsinenglish.no/NRK screen grab
* Read a detailed report by NewsInEnglish.no
Norway Ambassador in India Eivind S Homme Congratulates Magnus Carlsen from New Delhi
Posted by World Chess Championship 2013 News Blog Thursday, November 28, 2013
Congratulations, Magnus!
Last updated: 22.11.2013 // The Embassy of Norway warmly congratulates the new Chess World Champion, Magnus Carlsen, on winning the World Chess Championship, held in Chennai.
The young champion has also truly managed to put Norway on the map in India, perhaps as never before. He has excelled as an Ambassador for his country both in India and around the world as a fantastic player and sportsman that we are very proud of.
We would also like to pay our respect to Viswanathan Anand, for his play and great sportsmanship, for his contributions to chess internationally and in his own country over many years.
The Embassy would like to extend a big thank you to the organizers and to the government of Tamil Nadu, led by Chief Minister Ms J. Jayalalithaa, for their kind hospitality and for making the championship a most successful event.
We look forward to welcoming everyone to the Chess Olympiad 2014 in Tromsø, the Arctic City of Northern Norway. Thus the games will continue, now with even stronger ties of friendship between Norway and India.
Eivind S. Homme
* The Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi credits the photo to Magnus Carlsen's official website.
* His Excellency Eivind S. Homme's biography is here.
* Link for lots of information on visiting Norway
* Official website of the Tromso Chess Olympiad 2013
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen has Landed in Oslo, Watch Live on NRK TV Right Now (India 6.30 pm)
Posted by World Chess Championship 2013 News Blog Wednesday, November 27, 2013
World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen has landed in Oslo. Watch Live Right now on NRK TV (can you spot him - swamped by fans and media?) He is signing autographs and taking media questions at the same time!
The World Chess Champion takes on question after question with fantastic aplomb.


text:
Smoking With Laura Ellen Scott
by Tara Laskowski	Read the Story July 25, 2010
Epilogue by Joaquin Villaverde via Creative Commons license
This story seems to be based on a news story in Virginia about a girl who went missing after a concert. How often do you get your inspiration from news stories/current events? What about this particular story struck you?
I often start from real events, but I never know what's going to strike me or when. The news story made me sit upright as soon as I heard it, not because of its particulars but because I realized that I had been worried about "missing student" accounts for years, and now it was time to write about it.
There are really two stories going on here—Shasta and Tomas—and I love how they 'meet' towards the end of the story. I'm intrigued by the two of them. What do you see as their similarities here? Why is Shasta thinking about him this night?
They came together on their own. I'd been going through a family history and came across the Tomas story, and I was trying to write about that when I heard about the Virginia student. In both cases I was annoyed by what I felt was a cautionary bias in the reportage. I left the Tomas draft and started the Shasta draft, going back and forth until I realized that both stories were about the same thing—making informed choices, even though those choices aren't always safe. Shasta wants to be as in charge of her own destiny as Tomas has been with his, regardless of the tragic possibility.
You are working on a series of ghost stories right now. What is it with ghosts, scary stuff, that intrigues you?
Gothic is just my preferred flavor of fantasy. I like playing in the world I know, darkened and twisted. My mom read murder mysteries all the time, and my dad—who looked very much like Gomez Addams—took me to see Rosemary's Baby and other horror movies when I was very small. It was a scandal. My brother Sam was also a huge influence—I was bored with Barbie-type dolls until he built little gallows for them. In college my soon-to-be husband got my attention by impressing me with his knowledge of Manson family trivia.
On the line of scary stuff—what are some of the movies, books, stories that have scared the pants off of you?
That's a good question, because I don't always know if something has scared me until years later. In terms of literature, horror comic books were important to me when I was young, and as an adult, novels by Kathe Koja, Peter Straub and Joe R. Lansdale, and short stories by Hawthorne and Flannery O'Connor. In movies, the images that have stuck with me come from black and white films: Night of the Hunter, Cape Fear, Jane Eyre, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
But lately I've noticed objects wield more power than narratives. My dad was an antique dealer, and we were always coming into possession of items that made me think obsessively about their deceased owners. Hats are terrifying. And almost anything to do with colonial America gives me the willies.
Can you tell us a little about your VIPs on VSF blog? Where did the idea come from, and how are you feeling about its development?
I started the blog for my students, and it just caught on. I'm not actively adding to it right now because it feels like a fairly comprehensive volume, but once in a while someone volunteers a new article, which is lovely. Mainly I wanted focused, short remarks, no matter how idiosyncratic, about a form that to my mind has injected new life into short fiction. That said, I'm aware that not everyone is on board, and there are a few "flash vs. short story" skirmishes popping up on the net—as if one form threatens the other, which is ridiculous. When I scratch the surface of these arguments I often find that it's really the old and non-productive genre vs. literary opposition all over again, with a twist; this time genre writers are cast as conservatives because conventional short story structure is still their ideal form, and for very good reasons. I'm sympathetic, but only a little—some opportunities are expanding, others are contracting. Art moves, one hopes.
Laura Ellen Scott's recent fiction appears in/is forthcoming from Wigleaf, Corium Magazine, and The Northville Review. She curates Vips on vsf, where writers and editors share brief thoughts on very short fiction craft, and she blogs at Probably just a Story . "Last Seen Leaving" comes from her collection of dark and spooky vsf, in-progress.
Tara Laskowski has been editor at SmokeLong Quarterly since 2010. Her short story collection Bystanders was hailed by Jennifer Egan as "a bold, riveting mash-up of Hitchcockian suspense and campfire-tale chills." She is also the author of Modern Manners For Your Inner Demons, tales of dark etiquette. Her fiction has been published in the Norton anthology Flash Fiction International, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Mid-American Review, and numerous other journals, magazines, and anthologies. Tara lives and works in a suburb of Washington, D.C.
This interview appeared in Issue Twenty-Eight of SmokeLong Quarterly.


text:
Home Newsroom Email Local travel champions recognised at Travelwest awards
Local travel champions recognised at Travelwest awards
The annual Travelwest 'Business Travel Awards' took place on Thursday 29 November at the UWE Exhibition and Conference Centre in South Gloucestershire.
The awards recognise exceptional projects and outstanding businesses in the West of England whose commitment to sustainable travel make them stand out from their industry peers.
Organisations from across the four regions within the Travelwest partnership (South Gloucestershire, Bristol, North Somerset and Bath & North East Somerset) were celebrated for their success throughout the evening, which also included presentations from industry experts. A record number of businesses competed this year across a range of categories, showcasing the multiple ways that travel modes can be influenced to have a positive impact on health and the environment.
The selected winners are organisations and individuals that were judged to have shown outstanding commitment to sustainable travel, with an emphasis on organisations who are leading the business sector into a sustainable future. In South Gloucestershire, noteworthy results included Rolls Royce (Filton) who were awarded both 'Organisation of the Year' and 'Most Improved Workplace' (large) along with being highly commended in the 'Sustainable Travel Champion' category. North Bristol Suscom were highly commended in the 'Long Term Commitment to Sustainable Travel' category and South Gloucestershire Council's Transitions Team (who provide travel training to young people with physical and/or learning difficulties and special educational needs), were highly commended in the 'Most Innovative Travel Measure' category.
South Gloucestershire Council's Cabinet Member responsible for Transport, Cllr Colin Hunt, said: "Congratulations to all of the very worthy nominees and award winners. South Gloucestershire is proud to be the host for this year's awards, and it is great to see so many organisations from our region in the running, not to mention the success of Rolls Royce winning 'Organisation of the Year' and 'Most Improved Workplace', and the council's own Transitions Team being recognised.
"These awards reflect the increasing importance the role sustainable travel plays in our daily lives, helping us get around and maintain healthy lifestyles, along with addressing air quality and congestion problems to support a vibrant economy."
West of England Mayor, Tim Bowles, said: "Tackling congestion is a key part of ensuring future economic growth in the West of England. It is great to see so many local businesses helping us to maintain our attractiveness as a great place to live and work. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners who have shown superb leadership in their fields."
The full list of this year's winners is as follows:
Best Motivational Campaign
Winner: DAC Beachcroft
Highly Commended: EAT festivals
Sustainable Travel Champion
Winner: Worle School Academy
Highly Commended: Rolls Royce
Most Improved Workplace
Large: Rolls Royce
Small: Peter Evans Partnership Limited
Medium: Worle Community School Academy
Long Term Commitment to Sustainable Travel
Winner: University of Bristol
Highly Commended: North Bristol Suscom
Most Innovative Travel Measure
Winner: Life Cycle UK
Highly Commended: South Gloucestershire Council Transitions Team, Travel Training
Travelwest Challenge Winner
Micro: Key Transport Consultants
Small: Transport Planning Associates
Medium: Triodos
Large: DAC Beachcroft
Organisation of the Year
Rolls Royce.
© South Gloucestershire Council 2016


All of her best-laid plans crumble, however, when she meets rock star, Tate Watkins. After giving into her whims and indulging in a one-night stand, she finds cutting him loose isn't so easy.
My name is Anne Berkeley. I'm a full time cubicle dweller, wife and mother of two beautiful children. I do all things creative. Photoshop, photography, scrapbooking, decorating, barbering, and I would like to think...writing.
I dream up most of my material during my seventy-five minute commute to work. Some of it comes to fruition and other times it's edited out again. But I hope that what made the cut is worthy of note.
I write paranormal romance novels for adults. No not erotica. Though there are some steamy scenes. I'm working on several novels at the present. Yes, more than one. I jump back and forth as my mood dictates. It's the way I work best. Tempestuous, my first novel, released in 2012, Torrid in 2013 and Feral, the first of a new series in 2013. I'm working to complete Turbulent (Third and final novel for the Tempestuous series), a second novel for the Feral series, and two standalone novels.


text:
Data Protection Officer Services
Use our expertise to support your compliance. We offer a support model that will meet your needs, including fully outsourced DPO with 24/7 breach support
GDPR Audit
Our expert auditors can help you ensure that your organisation is on track. A full range of services including deep dive investigations
Our training courses range from practical whole staff awareness through to customised training for data protection officers
GDPR Project Support
We can help you with major tasks like data protection impact assessments, data mapping or incident investigation
See how we can help lift the burden of managing GDPR from your school.
Multi-Academy Trusts
We can help you ensure GDPR is managed consistently and efficiently across all your schools
Find out how we can support the personal data intensive environments that are Special Schools
See how we can support compliance in the highly diverse Further Education sector
See how we can support the data protection challenge when research data is added to teaching data
We're looking for partners to take the Sentry system to their customers. Find out what we offer.
GDPR News
A Warm Welcome for the IDTA
As a company, we've been asked a lot about the impact of Brexit on UK data protection. For the boots on the ground, the changes have not felt particularly significant. The Data Protection Act, including the UK GDPR, governs our compliance in a very similar manner and we still need to ensure the integrity and security of our data all the same. The one area you may spot some changes is data transfers. As stated by the ICO, UK transfer rules "broadly mirror the EU GDPR rules", but the UK now has sovereignty to change these rules.
Which is exactly what the UK has done. On the 21st of March, the UK's new International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) came into effect, alongside an addendum to the EU's latest Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs). These provisions replace the current SCCs for international transfers.
Why do we need the IDTA?
In 2020, the ECJ announced the "Schrems II" judgement. A judgement on case C-311/18 ('Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland and Maximillian Schrems'). The result of this case invalidated the EU-US privacy shield, and cast doubt on the use of SCCs to transfer data.
In principle, SCCs still provide an acceptable safeguard for transfers of personal data, but they now require additional work. Since Schrems II, both the EU and the UK have been working on new safe mechanisms for data transfer. For the UK, that new mechanism is the IDTA.
When to use the IDTA
Much like SCCs, and the now-defunct EU-US Privacy Shield, the IDTA is used when organisations want to transfer data to territories not covered by adequacy regulations, with weaker data protection provisions. The IDTA acts as a contract between the organisations sharing data. The organisation receiving data is not held to the same strict standard of privacy and security as the organisation sending the data, so they must agree to treat the data as if they were regulated by the UK Data Protection Act. This ensures that an individual's personal data receives equal protection outside the UK, as it would inside the country.
What does the IDTA mean for schools, colleges and trusts?
For schools, colleges and trusts, you'll need to look at your current contracts. You'll also need to review any new contracts you wish to enter. These changes only affect contracts with suppliers outside the EEA, without cover from an adequacy agreement. So, first of all, double check where a supplier processes and stores data.
The ICO are still publishing new guidance regarding the IDTA, but it is already available for immediate use. All contracts beginning after the 21st September 2022 will need to use the IDTA, or the IDTA addendum, so when looking at suppliers in third countries such as the USA, it's worth implementing the IDTA (or its addendum) now, rather than using legacy SCCs.
Additionally, schools, colleges and trusts will need to look at their current contracts, as from 21st March 2024, they'll need to rely on the IDTA, and not "old" SCCs. It's worth making note of when your current contracts end. That way, you have enough time to discuss and implement changes with your suppliers, without a break in service provision.
29th March 2022 /by Emily Parrett
https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/idta-600.jpg 323 600 Emily Parrett https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Default-Logo-340-300x253.png Emily Parrett2022-03-29 18:45:342022-03-29 18:45:34A Warm Welcome for the IDTA
Will Meta Cut Off the EU?
It's 2022, and with a new year comes new opportunities to look at the world through a data protection lens. To kick things off, News has broken Facebook's parent company Meta is threatening to cut off its main consumer services like Facebook and Instagram from customers in the EU.
Unlike last year's piece-meal banning of news content in Australia, this would be a cataclysmic withdrawal of the services entirely. Is this realistic? Could it really happen? Are there any wider implications? These are some of the questions on our minds.
It's not the first time that media giants have made threats, but Meta stands to lose billions of dollars of advertising revenue if it did so. Underneath all this bluster is a real risk to the company, as well as many other companies looking to process personal data in the United States.
EU-US Data Sharing: A History
The history of data sharing with the US is complicated and has seen several upheavals.
There was once a protocol called 'Safe Harbour' a set of principles that governed the exchange of data between the United States of America and the European Union, but the European Court threw it out in 2015, as it didn't offer the level of protection that the Data Protection Directive (the forerunner of GDPR) demanded.
This caused a multitude of difficulties. So in 2016, the EU-US Privacy Shield was rather hastily erected to replace Safe Harbour. However, this European Courts struck this down in 2020, thanks to campaigning from Austrian activist Max Schrems.
With Safe Harbour gone, and the Privacy Shield destroyed, those of us wanting to transfer data to the US were left with the use of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) to govern data flow. These clauses must be put in place by every company, take more negotiation and must be written into a legal agreement.
What's Next for EU-US Transfers?
Moving on from Schrems's success, there is now action brewing to invalidate SCCs. The Irish data protection regulator has already ruled that they fail to protect against snooping from US Intelligence Agencies.
Without them, it will become incredibly difficult to transfer data to the US without breaking Data Protection Regulations. Companies would need to provide specific contracts, where they can show safeguards against intelligence monitoring. Given the wide scope of homeland security based legislation in the US, this would be near impossible.
Let's say the courts strike down SCCs. Firms transferring data to the US will fail to abide by the rules and could face huge fines. In the case of Meta this could be nearly $3 billion.
What About the UK?
Facebook and Instagram users in the UK can relax a little, as any new EU ruling would not automatically affect us. In fact, the UK Government have made strong noises about loosening information transfer regulation rather than tightening it.
However, if you use applications based in Europe that move data to the US (such as for support services or data backup) you may see disruption.
The level of outcry should these platforms go dark means Meta will probably work something out. Indeed, facebook have since released a statement that they are not "threatening" to do anything. However, this topic does demonstrate that data protection legislation has an array of real-world implications. Real-world implications we can't just ignore.
22nd February 2022 /by Emily Parrett
https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/AdobeStock_334539211-Converted.png 362 723 Emily Parrett https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Default-Logo-340-300x253.png Emily Parrett2022-02-22 16:22:412022-02-22 16:22:41Will Meta Cut Off the EU?
Privacy Rules: Rumoured Renovations
Last week, a news article popped up. "UK to overhaul privacy rules". Naturally, it piqued some interest. The UK debated revoking the GDPR before they finished implementing it. By the time the GDPR came into effect in 2018, several years had passed since the UK announced its intention to leave the EU.
However, we have now officially left the EU and completed the transition period. We are no longer obligated to comply with EU regulations. This doesn't mean the GDPR has disappeared, but it does change some of the rules of the game.
We've Left The EU. Why Do We Still Have The GDPR?
As of January 2021, the Brexit transition period has ended. EU laws no longer apply to the UK. Therefore, the EU GDPR technically no longer applies to the UK.
The key word here is "technically". According to the ICO, "The GDPR is retained in domestic law as the UK GDPR". The UK GDPR writes the same privacy rules into UK law, with just a few minor changes. These laws remain regardless of our status within the EU.
The key difference now we have left the EU, is that we are no longer obligated to have a privacy framework identical to the GDPR, and the UK government now keeps the framework under review themselves. They also now have the power to scrap the whole thing.
What Will Change: International Data Transfers
While it is now technically possible, it's unlikely the GDPR is going away any time soon. However, there may be changes that alter how schools and colleges handle their data.
Firstly, updates to current international adequacy agreements would affect bringing on new suppliers.
As part of choosing a data processor, schools and colleges must assess whether personal data leaves the UK. If a company holds data in a country where data protection laws are not as stringent as ours, this puts undue risk on that data. These data processors should implement additional protections for personal data such as Standard Contractual Clauses.
Adequacy agreements negate the need for these additional protections. The UK has agreed with multiple countries that any data moving from the UK to those countries will be treated with the same security as if it were still in the UK. Upon leaving the EU, the UK government has announced plans to strike new adequacy agreements with additional countries. As the UK begins discussions with various nations, and adequacy agreements shift and change, the suitability of different data processors will also vary. Schools and colleges will need to keep an eye on policy changes regarding international data transfers, to make sure they have all the appropriate safeguards in place. should the UK remove a country from the list of "adequate" countries, schools and colleges should either terminate any contracts with data processors there, or ensure there are additional measures to protect any transferred data.
What Will Change: The Bigger Picture
Secondly, the UK government have stated that they intend to "improve the UK's data protection regime to make it even more ambitious and innovation friendly." To break this down into layman's terms, the UK government want to ease the path to data sharing where they believe it could fuel growth for the country. It's not entirely clear what this will mean in terms of specific changes to the current privacy rules. However, the UK are unlikely to entirely revoke the GDPR.
The UK already has adequacy agreements with over 30 countries, via the EU's GDPR framework. If the UK were to massively reduce the data protection regulations, they would no longer be in line with the GDPR, and we would lose our adequacy agreements with these EU countries. Seeing as the UK government are keen to increase the number of adequacy agreements and data partnerships, it feels unlikely they'll sacrifice agreements with the entire European Union, in order to relax data protection regulations.
Is the GDPR Here to Stay?
It certainly looks that way. The rumoured "overhaul" is currently more of a renovation. The GDPR will still be providing a framework for data protection and providing individuals with important data related rights.
So, as we start a new year of education and innovation, lets keep data protection at the core of it all. Responsible use of data builds trust between your organisation and your staff, students, clients and customers. It's worth keeping that confidence. Without trust, it's far harder to flourish.
14th September 2021 /by Emily Parrett
https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/AdobeStock_329677048.jpeg 641 1200 Emily Parrett https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Default-Logo-340-300x253.png Emily Parrett2021-09-14 11:36:312021-09-14 11:36:31Privacy Rules: Rumoured Renovations
Can I Ask My Employee if They're Vaccinated?
It seems we are slowly marching towards "freedom day", when the Prime Minister announces the removal of the restrictions that have covered almost every aspect of our day-to-day. However, Covid cases are on the rise again. With numbers as high as they were in Autumn 2020, We are all hoping the link between rising case numbers and rising deaths has been broken, but we won't know for sure until we start to resume a normal life. The proof is in the pudding, or rather, it's in the vaccine.
The vaccine is also the focus of today's blog. Unless you've an (understandable) aversion to news channels, or you've taken up residence under a rock, you'll definitely have heard of "Vaccine Passports". This is the idea that those individuals now fully vaccinated, will be able to travel freely and attend large gatherings and events unhampered by coronavirus restrictions. The concept has been floating around since before vaccines were even available. Vaccine certification has already been used to run trial events in England.
There are concerns around all aspects of vaccine passes, from logistics to privacy and discrimination. However, for school and college staff who are too busy to go abroad or attend concerts, it's not currently the greatest concern. Nonetheless, the controversy of the scheme has raised a question that is relevant to education institutions. "Can I ask if my employee is vaccinated?"
Can I Collect Data About Employee Vaccinations?
The first question here, is "what are you trying to achieve?". To put it simply, why do you want to collect this data?. When collecting personal data, you need to consider two things. Is using this data necessary, and is it relevant for a specific purpose?
This is something you should consider when collecting any personal data, but it's particularly important with data such as vaccination status. Medical data is special category data. It is afforded additional protections, and you need to provide strong grounds for using it..
So, why would you need to collect employee vaccination status? There are a few scenarios where collecting this data might be justifiable. For example, if employees work amongst clinically vulnerable individuals. Additionally, if employees are working in a health or social care setting, where they are more likely to become infected with Covid-19, it might be prudent to record their vaccination status.
Unless your organisation runs differently to the average school or college, for instance you provide specialist provision or you work with clinically vulnerable students, it's unlikely you'll have compelling reasons to collect vaccination data. If you are collecting this information simply for monitoring purposes, you'll likely struggle to find adequate justification.
Justifying the Processing of Vaccination Data
You've concluded that vaccine data is necessary and relevant to the running of your organisation, now you need to select a legal basis of processing. If this data is integral to running the school or college, you should probably use public task as your legal basis. If you run an independent school, you would use legitimate interest.
As said before, this can only really be justified if you have a good reason to collect data about employee's vaccinations. Additionally, you'll need to identify an article 9 condition for processing, as Vaccination status is health data. You could consider using either Employment Law (Art. 9(b)) or Public Health (Art. 9(i)).
If you are using the public health exemption in article 9, you must take additional steps, either by ensuring a health professional carries out processing, or by explaining to employees that vaccination data will be treated as confidential and only shared in defined circumstances.
Can We Collect Vaccine Data if We Ask for Consent?
Your Organisation could possibly request vaccination details on the basis of consent. Employees could consent to share their data. However, employees would need to provide explicit consent due to the nature of the data. Additionally, consent is a poor choice of legal basis for data processing in the workplace.
Freely given consent is possible in theory, but does not allow for the inherent imbalance of power in the workplace. A key aspect of consent is the placement of power in the hands of the data subject. Consent should be free of sanctions or perceived sanctions. It's unlikely an employee will feel they can refuse consent without sanctions at a later date. Employers have power over wages, promotions and job security. That power means that any consent given by an employee is unlikely to be entirely freely given.
As such, consent is an inappropriate lawful basis of processing for most personal data in the workplace.
Should we be processing vaccine information?
The answer may well be no. The pandemic has meant the sharing of information has been vital. Test and trace only works if test results are shared. This doesn't mean there's a free-for-all on all things "Corona". As a general rule, we should only be collecting information we need to collect.
What's the key take-away?
The collection and use of vaccinations data is a great way to look at any consideration of processing personal data. It comes down to some simple questions:
Do we know exactly what data we want to process?
Is it necessary, or a legal obligation?
Do we have a legal basis to justify processing the data
Can we provide appropriate protection for the data?
Can we provide suitable control for the individuals over their data?
If you can't answer all these questions with a solid 'Yes' then the chances are you should not be processing this data.
6th July 2021 /by Emily Parrett
https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/vaccine-pass.jpeg 533 800 Emily Parrett https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Default-Logo-340-300x253.png Emily Parrett2021-07-06 09:52:002021-07-06 09:52:00Can I Ask My Employee if They're Vaccinated?
Demystifying SARs: Handling a Subject Access Request
For today's post, we're taking a quick dive into the murky depths of Subject Access Requests.
Imagine this scenario. One of your students, staff members, or anyone you might have information about is standing at the front desk, and they're asking for all of their data. What do you do? What happens next? For many organisations, it's a daunting thought.
In reality, answering a Subject Access Request can be reasonably simple. However, the process is easier to understand with a little background knowledge:
What is a Subject Access Request?
Every individual is entitled to know what information you are holding about them. Individuals have a range of rights, including the right to rectification and the right to be forgotten, but the right most commonly exercised is the right to access.
Individuals exercise this right by submitting a Subject Access Request. Through this process, individuals can ask you to provide them with a copy of the personal data you hold about them.
An individual has been able to submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) since before the GDPR. Although the process was slightly different, you could request your data under the 1998 Data Protection Act. The GDPR has simplified the process for individuals, so they can exercise their rights with more ease.
Receiving a Subject Access Request
Back to the situation at hand, you're manning the front desk and you're face-to-face with a SAR. What comes next?
The first thing to note is that a Subject Access Request can come to anyone within an organisation, and can come in any format. Your organisation may have a specified route for Subject Access Requests such as an email address or phone number, but individuals are not obligated to use these methods.
A Subject Access Request can be verbal or written and can be sent through mechanisms like social media. You can receive a Subject Access Request via tweet. When you receive a request via one of these routes, it's best to make a written record of the request, but you can't force the individual to do so.
An individual can send in a Subject Access Request as an instant message like this.
In this scenario, the first thing you'll want to do is gather a little more information. You can ask the individual for their name, and whether they have any other information such as a reference number to help locate their records.
After that, it's best to enquire if there is anything specific the individual is looking for. Sometimes an individual is looking for specific information, or data from a specific time-period. They're under no obligation to narrow the scope of their request, but it can sometimes save them from sifting through hundreds of records and save time for your organisation.
A Note About Identification
It is important that the person making the request is who they claim to be. This process requires some common sense. Identity verification must not be used to block access to information. In the case of requestors such as students or staff, you already hold information about their identity, and their presence at your organisation on a daily basis means that further checking is not required.
When requestors are less well known, verification of identity is required. This is easiest to do in person. The requestor can show identification documents such as:
Current Drivers Licence
Bank or Building Society Statement
Letters from the Benefits Agency
Letter from Professional
In the scenario used here, you might not be absolutely certain of the requestor's identity. You could ask to see identification when they first make the request. If they didn't have any, you could advise them to return with ID when possible, but that you'll start processing their request immediately.
Documents like passports, driver's licenses and utility bills can be used to verify someone's identity.
Moving down the chain
Once you've taken this information, the next step depends on how your organisation works. For larger organisations, you might have a designated data protection team. For smaller organisations, you may have a single point of contact, or you might be the data protection lead. In particularly small organisations, it's not unusual for employees to have more than one hat to wear.
Regardless of size, your next step will involve recording the request, and setting the data discovery process in motion. Your organisation has a calendar month to respond to a Subject Access Request, and this begins when anyone in the organisation receives a request, not when the designated data protection lead receives it, so it's important you get the ball rolling quickly.
You should have somewhere to record any Subject Access Requests your organisation receives. It might be an cloud-based system like ours. You should record the request, along with the date requested and any additional details. If someone makes a written request or sends a tweet, you should record that request verbatim so there can't be any confusion.
The request has been recorded and passed on to the correct team. If you're in a large organisation, that might be the last you hear of the request. If your organisation is smaller, you are more likely to be involved in data discovery.
At this stage you'll need to look through all your records for any personal data of the requestor. If the scope has been narrowed down, you may not need to locate all the personal data for an individual. When searching for data, make sure to search using any identifiers that might be used in your organisation. If customers have a reference number, or if individuals are referred to by initials, these should be searched for too, as well as searching for the requestor's name. It's also worth noting that something can be personal data, even if none of these identifiers are used. For instance, sometimes a cursory glance through all relevant emails might turn up one or two results that were missed by a filtered search done previously.
This can be quite a complex process, and if you're struggling to hit the deadline, it might be worth looking at extensions.
Redact and Return
The data has been found and it's been collated. Now you need to provide it to the individual. In general, SARs are sent out in electronic format, but a general rule of thumb would be to respond to a request in the format you received it. In this case, the request was verbal, and it wouldn't make sense to try and provide the response verbally. Instead, the data protection team are using the contact details you collected at the start of the process and will be emailing out the response. Good for the bees, good for the trees, and easily accessible to the requestor.
However, before this data can be sent out, it must be redacted. An individual only has the right to access their own data, so anybody else's personal data needs to be removed.
There are a few different methods to redact information, either in hard copy or in digital format. A quick scribble in black pen seems to suffice in the movies, but it's not a reliable form of redaction. To ensure you don't give away data you shouldn't, have a look into electronic redaction, which covers the data and then deletes it from underneath so it cannot be recovered.
An individual is only entitled to their own personal data. You need to redact or remove other people's information.
A month has passed, and your student or staff member has received an email with the personal data they requested. They're happy, you're happy, and there have been no inadvertent data breaches.
Subject Access Requests might seem daunting to begin with, but they just require a little teamwork and some forward planning. With a step-by-step process you can solve a SAR with ease.
9th June 2021 /by Emily Parrett
https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/office-@4x-1.png 266 800 Emily Parrett https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Default-Logo-340-300x253.png Emily Parrett2021-06-09 13:15:372021-06-14 12:04:58Demystifying SARs: Handling a Subject Access Request
GDPR and Climate Change: An Unexpected Benefit
Here's a good news story to kick off the new month…
The GDPR has provided a whole new framework for data protection, a framework that is centred around an individual's right to privacy rather than an organisation's desire for data. Your rights are now stronger and clearer, and organisations must safeguard data and be transparent about how they use it.
Individuals have benefited from tighter data security, greater control over their information and clearer requests for consent. However, the GDPR has also provided an additional benefit. GDPR is good for the environment!
What does GDPR have to do with the environment?
At first, it's quite hard to see the connection. How can a data protection law affect climate change? This becomes clearer when we remember that the majority of data these days is held electronically. We use electricity to run computers, servers and routers, as well as to manufacture computing equipment. Each email sent creates around 5g of CO2. This may not sound like a lot, but when the average office worker sends and receives 140 emails a day, it all adds up.
So, using the internet has an environmental impact, but that still doesn't explain why the GDPR has been good for the environment.
We're receiving fewer emails
Since the GDPR came into effect, organisations have reduced the number of marketing emails they send. The GDPR made consent requirements are more stringent; organisations must provide an opt-in mechanism for emails, rather than an opt-out mechanism. This means that only those interested in a product or service receive marketing emails. Not only is this better for individuals, but it also cuts down emissions. A reduction in the number of emails sent means that over 360 tonnes of CO2 are saved every day. The same as a flight from London to New York
Websites are Slimming Down
Additionally, many websites have cut the number of third-party cookies and ad trackers on their websites. A report from Jet Global found that since the implementation of the GDPR, UK news sites have 45% fewer third-party cookies on their sites. UK companies aren't the only ones to slim down. When the GDPR came into effect, USA Today ran a cut-down version of their site for EU customers. This version (with all the tracking code removed), was one-tenth of the size of the original size, and took just 3 seconds to load, compared to 45 seconds. Slow sites use more energy, and most of this energy is provided by fossil fuels and non-renewables. Digital sustainability expert Chris Adams estimated that the cut-down version of USA Today can save about as much CO2 as a flight from Chicago to New York a day.
The GDPR is good for individuals, and is good for businesses. Turns out, it's also good for the planet.
4th May 2021 /by Emily Parrett
https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Green-effects-of-GDPR.jpeg 533 800 Emily Parrett https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Default-Logo-340-300x253.png Emily Parrett2021-05-04 11:36:252021-08-18 14:27:28GDPR and Climate Change: An Unexpected Benefit
Managing Mental Health Concerns in Higher Education
In schools, responsibility surrounding children's mental health and wellbeing is clearly documented. Legislation such as the 1989 Children's Act, and guidance such as "Keeping Children Safe in Education," set out responsibilities of staff and governors. Furthermore, it is made abundantly clear that data protection concerns should not prevent action from being taken to support the welfare of the child or young person.
However, these requirements only apply to those under 18. In the Keeping Safe in Education documentation, all individuals under the age of 18 are classed as children. Yet in higher and further education, most students are adults. This makes management of their welfare a more complicated puzzle.
The Statistics: Mental Health in Universities
In a 2020 survey of 1800 university students, Randstad (A human resources consulting firm) found nearly 40% of participants felt their studies were affecting their mental wellbeing. Of students considering leaving their course, 55% of them considered mental health decline a leading factor in their decision. There is plenty of evidence that attending university can create stress for students, and exacerbate mental health problems.
There is also plenty of evidence that early intervention supports recovery from mental health problems, but this can only happen if those who can intervene know that it's needed.
One obvious source of support would be parents, or another trusted adult. Many parents want to provide that support, but if the student won't ask for help, does the university or college have the right to get in touch and flag the concern?
To disclose, or not to disclose?
Let's think about this from the pure approach of data protection. A data controller is in possession of special category personal data (concerns about the mental wellbeing) for an adult. Without explicit consent or a statutory duty, can the data controller disclose that personal data to a third party?
The obvious answer to this question is no. It would be a clear breach of confidentiality.
The issue is, from the perspective of the College or University, they can only go so far in providing welfare services, so surely sharing concerns with parents/guardians would be justified in the best interests of the student?
This is where everything becomes complicated. At a point of crisis, where an individual's life is at risk, the Vital Interests lawful basis could allow an emergency contact to be made, but only to alert the contact of the emergency. Universities can only disclose additional detail if the individual is incapable of giving consent.
If mental health intervention is most effective before an emergency situation, we can't disclose health data on the basis of Vital Interests. We also have to consider that the student may have good reasons for not wanting their parents to be contacted, even in an emergency. It's possible the issues may relate directly to the parents or to their attitudes towards the student. In some cases, informing parents could put the student at risk of serious harm.
How can the institution know the family background of the thousands of students they deal with? Worse still, if parents were contacted when a concern was flagged, then this might put students off coming forward in the first place.
Creating a new infrastructure
Information cannot be disclosed without consent. For a person with declining mental health, getting that consent can be difficult. Depending on the particular problem being faced, that consent may not even be considered freely given.
As such, the best time to address this problem is during the process of application and enrolment. A structured opt-in scheme with very clear rules could be established at universities, so students can give their consent for concerns to be shared with a named contact. This scheme could be promoted in school during applications, and by universities during open days.
This wouldn't be used if students miss a lecture or don't hand work in on time. University is not school. While most students are on the younger side, they should be treated with the same respect given to any adult. However, for serious concerns about a student's wellbeing, this opt-in mechanism would enable help to be sought before a crisis. Should a student not consent or withdraw their consent later, the university or college would follow the normal welfare process, giving students freedom of choice. For those who do consent, this scheme would act as an additional safety net, giving students and parents a level of reassurance.
A Widespread Solution
Opt-in systems are appearing at various universities, but it's unclear whether these will be adopted more widely. UCAS, who manage most university applications, currently have nothing in place in their application process. Furthermore, the Office for Students say that "individual universities are responsible for developing their own mental health policies."
As such, it's unlikely there will be a standardised process across all colleges and universities. However, even if the Office for Students does not mandate an opt-in system, Universities and Colleges could implement them independently.
This is the most obvious method of balancing the issues of consent and concern. Yet, a recent Freedom of Information Request found that of 149 responses, only 32 higher education institutions had a system for students to opt-in to parent/guardian contact.
Finding the Perfect Balance
From a broader perspective, this debate raises questions about where duty of care lies at university. From a data protection perspective, it's relatively simple. An individual's right to consent or object to processing/sharing of data should be respected.
A consent based system gives students the choice they are entitled to. However, it also means that a student's support system can be contacted if they are in crisis. 96% of students at the University of Bristol opted in to their welfare scheme, and the university used the scheme 36 times in the first year. By stepping back, and adding additional infrastructure designed with data privacy in mind, higher education institutions can keep both data protection and welfare as a priority.
22nd April 2021 /by Emily Parrett
https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/mental-health-higher-education-lecture.jpeg 533 800 Emily Parrett https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Default-Logo-340-300x253.png Emily Parrett2021-04-22 14:25:432021-04-26 12:40:02Managing Mental Health Concerns in Higher Education
Returning to the Office (and the Pub!)
We've reached a new checkpoint in Boris's Covid roadmap. Yesterday, non-essential shops reopened, and many flocked to their local pub to enjoy a pint outside. For many, yesterday also marked their first day back in the office. While teaching staff have been back for a few weeks now, for others the full time return to the office is just happening. While returning to the office is cause for celebration, we should also take the opportunity to renew our data protection vigilance.
Many organisations have used lockdown as an opportunity to reshuffle the office. Speaking from experience, it can be a little jarring when you come back to work and find your desk in a whole new place!
Separating Work and Home Life
It's important to acknowledge that changes like this can leave people a little uncertain, and that working away from the office can lead to lapses in data protection practices. Now is a good time to check staff still have the little things in place, such as locking computers when they leave their desk., It's important to remember that not all information is suitable for sharing with colleagues, particularly if you're in an office with people from different teams.
Now is also a good time to check your digital distancing. Lockdown compressed our work lives and personal lives into a single space. Now, much like social distancing, we need to make sure we leave enough space between those two lives, that data can't cross from one to the other. While working from home, you may have had to use your own devices, or store things in personal drawers in your house. Now we have access to the office again, take a few moments to assess your home workspace. Have you left any paperwork at home? Do you still have access to work emails and files on your home computer?
Another common occurrence in lockdown has been the use of personal mobiles for business related tasks. We've talked previously about some of the dangers of this, but for many, it has seemed like the only choice to keep organisations running smoothly. Now we can return to our usual methods of communication, it might be best to close down any work WhatsApp or Messenger groups, as they greatly increase the risk of a data breach.
Moving Forwards Safely
It's wonderful to be back in the office, and it's wonderful to see colleagues face to face, albeit from a safe distance. It might take a little while for things to feel normal again, but hopefully this is a permanent step towards 'Business as Usual'.  As we move forward along the Covid roadmap, we can start getting excited for holidays and weddings, as well as indoor sport and museums. However, we should also keep a careful eye on our behaviour, so our excitement isn't dampened by a data breach and its consequences.
And on that note, may we move cautiously, but optimistically, to May 17th, the next step in our journey to normality.
13th April 2021 /by Emily Parrett
https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/returning-to-the-office-.jpeg 533 800 Emily Parrett https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Default-Logo-340-300x253.png Emily Parrett2021-04-13 15:24:482021-04-13 15:38:37Returning to the Office (and the Pub!)
Understanding Anonymisation
When you purchase a product or use a service, at some point you will probably receive a feedback form. It's almost an inevitability.
It might be a form that arrives on email, or an irritating pop-up in an app. Recently, if you use a smart speaker you may get a notification which proceeds to tell you "Two months ago, you bought cat food, how many stars would you give this product?" It's easy to answer the question. Although, depending on how irritating the distraction is, the validity of the feedback is questionable!
Whenever these pop-ups appear, you're told "Your responses will remain anonymous". It's such a common appearance that most of us probably don't even notice. With the smart speakers, there is no privacy information at all. We all assume our feedback is anonymous. Maybe it's worth taking a step back and asking ourselves "What is anonymisation anyway?"
What is Anonymisation?
Anonymous data is defined in recital 26 of the GDPR as "Information which does not relate to an identified or identifiable natural person or to personal data rendered anonymous in such a manner that the data subject is not or no longer identifiable".
Anonymous data is, therefore, not subject to the provisions of the UK GDPR. However, anonymisation is not as simple as removing names and addresses, particularly with the new definition of personal data. The UK GDPR defines personal data as data relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
Understanding Identifiability
To understand the breadth of identifiability, let's look at a stock image.
A stock image of london commuters. This photo is too blurry to easily identify the individuals in the picture.
This image is from Adobe Stock, a website where you pay a licence fee to use images in commercial works. If I hadn't told you where the image came from, you could find out quickly with a reverse image search. We're not going to get into the debate here about invasion of privacy by the photographer and whether publishing the image for sale, truly puts into the public domain.
If we go on the Stock image website, we'll find the name of the photographer who took the picture. We could then contact the photographer and ask about this particular photo. The photographer might say that it was a candid photo, without any models, but that they took it at 6.40am on the 5th October 2020.
You could then canvas around this station at the same time of day the photographer took the picture. Given how many people use the tube for their daily commute, there's a distinct possibility you'll find some of the people in the photograph.
In three or four steps, you can identify the individuals in the photograph. The individuals are identifiable, so this picture could be defined as personal data. It's easy to see from here why anonymisation is a harder task than it used to be.
True Anonymisation
So, are our responses to those rating questions anonymous? The answer to that question is "maybe."
If the data is requested and collected in a way that provides the rating to the company with no other details, then we could say the feedback was anonymous.
However, lets take an experience that many of us are familiar with. You download an app on your phone and happily set about completing puzzles, building civilisations or destroying aliens. After a while a request pops up asking for a review.
For Apple users this is all provided by the Appstore. Interestingly, an application provider must only request this information three times year. The application provider must therefore record how many times they've sent a pop-up notification. So, it's clear they must store some personal data.
Seeing as the App Store handles ratings and reviews, you could consider Apple as a data processor, running the review process on behalf of the App developer. So, maybe they are processing personal data after all.
Let's think about a simpler example. You run an event in a school and you ask for feedback afterwards. Let's say you send out a link to a Google Form and someone answered about the lack of wheelchair access, or rapidly flashing lights without a warning. If you have one person who uses a wheelchair or one person with photo-sensitive epilepsy then the anonymity of the feedback is very much weakened.
Managing Anonymisation
The bigger question is 'Do you actually need to have perfectly anonymous data?"
For the education sector, feedback is essential to improve teaching, educational resources and student wellbeing. Educational organisations often need to show their commitment to progress and equality. The publication of statistical data can support that.
The UK Data Service provides advice on anonymising both Quantitative Data (numbers and statistics) and Qualitative Data (opinions, statements and written responses).
However, if you take sensible anonymisation measures (or use sensible alternatives such as pseudonymisation measures) and you protect the data you gather as personal data, any risks can be cut substantially, and you can get on with driving improvements based on the results of your feedback.
7th April 2021 /by Emily Parrett
https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/AdobeStock_273686751.jpeg 533 800 Emily Parrett https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Default-Logo-340-300x253.png Emily Parrett2021-04-07 11:54:202021-04-07 11:54:20Understanding Anonymisation
It's been 'Zero-Days' Since The Last Incident
Last week, a global hacking campaign targeted Microsoft Exchange servers, and compromised hundreds of UK companies. It was estimated that more than 500 email servers in the UK were hacked, alongside many more across the world. Attackers used newly discovered vulnerabilities in the software to gain access to data, or to install ransomware.
Ransomware can cripple an organisation, with hackers locking the organisation out of their own servers and removing access to data unless the organisation hands over a hefty fee. Attackers often delete or sell the data they held hostage, even if the victim pays the ransom. We've talked about the damaging impact ransomware can have on operations in previous posts, such as the Travelex incident in early 2020. The company spent several weeks unable to function, with all of their systems offline. In short, a ransomware attack can bring an organisation to its knees.
A 'Zero-Day' Hack With Widespread Damage
The recent hack has been particularly damaging due to multiple factors:
Firstly, thousands of organisations use Microsoft Exchange. These range in size from large corporations like Metro and the Independent, to individual schools with a handful of students. Smaller organisations may not have dedicated IT staff, and are less likely to spot growing problems, or may miss a patch, which removes a vulnerability that could later be exploited. When an attack compromises a widely used software, small organisations often receive the most disruption.
The second factor in this hack is the type of vulnerability that was exploited. According to Microsoft, hackers used new techniques, that have not been seen before. This meant that attackers knew of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange software before the software developers knew. This is referred to as a "zero-day" vulnerability. The developers have "zero days" to fix the problem that has just been exposed — and perhaps already exploited by hackers. Software vendors must work to quickly release a patch while the world waits, and customers are at risk. If developers fail to release a patch before hackers exploit the security hole, the "zero-day" vulnerability becomes a "zero-day" attack.
Preventing Zero-Day Attacks:
While these attacks can lead to personal data breaches. Zero-Day attacks are a broader Cyber-Security issue. In organisations such as schools and colleges the two issues overlap; most of the data held on systems such as Microsoft Exchange will be personal data.
Having a specialist on-call should you run into a problem might be worth considering. Some insurance policies can provide access to this type of expertise. More complex preventative measures require a more detailed understanding of IT, but there are still some more simple things that you can put in place to reduce risk.
Ensure you have Firewalls and Anti-Virus software in place, and you update the software regularly.
Make sure to install any new patches or updates released for your software. These patches are likely to be securing vulnerabilities in the software.
Keep an eye on the news. If a software you use appears as part of a hack or cyber-attack, letting IT staff know as soon as possible gives them a head start to tackle any issues that arise.
Ensure your organisation has a secure backup in place, and that you hold the backup separately to your main servers. Should hackers delete your records, you may be able to retrieve lost data from your backup.
Disaster Recovery and Workforce Education
These are just a few ideas as to how to keep your organisation safe from cyber-attacks. However, you can't prevent every single attack. The nature of Zero-Day attacks mean that you don't know about a vulnerability until after an attack. Therefore, having a disaster recovery plan is useful, should you need to deal with such a situation.
A final point. In this post we've explored some of the aspects of a personal data breach caused by a cyber-attack, rather than human error. Chances are, the majority of data breaches you encounter will be caused by human error. The preventative measures discussed above are important for reducing risk of a cyber-attack, but you should combine them with workforce education and a strong data protection ethos. A breach caused by an individual can have just as damaging of an effect as one caused by code.
https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AdobeStock_248178018.jpeg 534 800 Emily Parrett https://gdprsentry.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Default-Logo-340-300x253.png Emily Parrett2021-03-16 16:27:012021-03-16 16:27:54It's been 'Zero-Days' Since The Last Incident
Terms – Sentry
Terms – Training
GDPR Sentry Limited
Unit 434 Birch Park
Thorp Arch Estate
LS23 7FG
info@gdprsentry.com
Registered in England under Company Number: 11093693
© Copyright 2019 - GDPR Sentry Limited