Reforming High School for the 21st Century

                   There is a world consensus that the governments, politicians, education systems` employees, parents and students must make an effort to upgrade the quality of education. The fourth industrial revolution is about to begin and we all should be prepared for the technological challenge. The law for the implementation of high school reform in Brazil in 2017 was a good step toward the right direction. Now depend on education system of every state for its effective implementation. We all know that integral high school is difficult to implement in the short-term, because most of high school buildings have classes of middle school in the afternoon, but at least the flexibilization of subjects and the sixth class are perfectly possible to implement next year in all schools in every state. The law demands that next year all high school in all states must work with the new system, and many researches have shown that this new system is better in preparing the students for a job after secondary education or further studies in the university. So, we must not forget to demand the correct  implementation of the high school reform from our governors next year. By the way we are waiting for the plan of its implementation. So far there is not a plan for all schools in the state of MG. We are anxious to know if this new high school will be exactly how it is in the law. We should not wait more, we are wasting precious time. The high school reform approved by Congress in 2017 is the best option to improve the Brazilian education, in the short-term, the sixth class and the flexibilization will deep the students knowledge in their subjects chosen, and in the long-term the integral school will give time for students learn more their weakness.    This post is a summary of two articles. The first was published at   http://horizon.unc.edu/projects/issues/papers/School_to_Work.html. The second with the incomplete title above was published at   http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/mf_PB06_ReformingHS.pdf

                 School to work programs, by definition, link students and schools with the workplace. This is accomplished through school partnerships with employers, unions, and other public and private sector organizations. Together, these organizations help students develop the skills needed for the competitive job market while making their educational experience relevant to the world they will experience as adults. Schools to work programs are becoming increasingly important in school reform movements. They encourage curricular restructuring towards a contextual learning environment. With such a restructuring, the universal complaint of students, "why are we learning this when we won't ever use it" will be laid to rest. Application learning makes formal education relevant to life. The belief is that vocational program are for the low-achieving students, while academic programs are for the higher-achieving students who will probably seek post-secundary education. However, those who attend college are unfamiliar with the variety of career paths. Even these students could have benefited from secundary career exploration. All students need to be prepared to enter the job market, and this should begin long before graduation. The school-to-work movement will encourage the linking of education to preparation for a well-chosen career path. Faced with a fast changing job market through which there seems to be no discernible pathway to economic ssurvival. non-college-bound students often exit high school with no marketable skills. In 1994, President Clinton signed the "School-to-work Initiative Act". Calling for the creation of a national system of school-to-work programs. By connecting the school environment to long-term job goals and earning potential, educators will be providing students with a motivating incentive previously lacking from most realms of secondary education.

          For decades, reading, writing and arithmetic provided the foundation for all subsequent learning. In today's information society, those basic skills, while necessary, are not sufficient. Revitalizing education and making it relevant to 21st century requires supplementing with rigor, relationships, and relevance. In a revamped high school, the concept of rigor is broadened to include mastery not only of core academic subject but of the higher-order cognitive high school program aligns curriculu,. instruction and assessment with high standards. High schools in the process of transforming are often divided into smaller learning communities that provide individual support to each student and take responsibility for decisions related to their own learning. Students work cooperatively on tasks and assignments. Research tell us that students in such contexts have improved attendance, achieve higher levels and graduate in higher numbers. A growing number of students disengage from learning when the course content have not relevanceto real-world applications. Interest is growing in career and technical education, where teachers reengage students by coupling academic preparation with career and technical education. The American public understands that unless students master the skills athat the global economy demands, our nations's economic competitiveness will suffer.

Italian Immigrant National Day

                   Last Friday, 21st of February, all over Brazil was celebrated the Italian emmigration to Brazil. So this post is a tribute to all Italians that came to Brazil, including my great grandmom and my great grandad that came from Tuscany in the last decade of 19th century. This post is a summary of three articles. The first with the title above was published at   https://www.vercalendario.info/en/event/brazil-holidays-21-february-2020.html. The second was published at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Brazilians. The third was published at   linelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.2050-411X.1994.tb00762.x

              National Immigrant Italian Day is commemorated throughout Brazil's national territory as established in a law passed by Brazilian Congress in May 2008. The creation of a specific day to honor immigrants is the official recognition of Brazil for the great contribution of the Italian people.

              Italian Brazilians are the largest number of people with Italian ancestry outside Italy, with São Paulo being the most populous city with Italian ancestry in the world. Nowadays, it is possible to find millions of descendants of Italians, from the southeastern state of MG to the RS, with the majority living in SP state and the highest percentage in the south of ES with 60-75%. Small southern towns, such as Nova Veneza, have as much as 95% of their population of Italian descent. Four Presidents of Brazil were of Italian descent: Pascoal Ranieri Mazzili, Itamar Franco, Emilio Garrastazu Medici and Jair Messias Bolsonaro. The Brazilian government used to prohibit multiple citizenship. However, that changed in 1994 by a new constitutional amendment. After the changes, over half a million Italian-Brazilians have requested recognition of their Italian citizenship. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the newly-united Italy suffered an economic crisis. An agriculture congress in 1878 in Rio discussed the lack of labor and proposed to the government the stimulation of European immigration to Brazil. The first groups of Italians arrived in 1875, but the boom of Italian immigration in Brazil happened between 1880 and 1900, when almost one million Italians arrived. Over half of the Italian immigrants came from Northern Italian regions of Veneto, Lombardy, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. Among all Italians who immigrated to Brazil, 70% went to the State of São Paulo. The rest went mostly to the states of Rio Grande do Sul, and MG. Internal migration made many second and third generations Italians move to other areas. Many rural Italian workers from RS migrated to Santa Catarina and Paraná. Italians migrated to Brazil as families. He had to sign a contract with the farmer to work in the coffee plantation for a minimum period of time. However, the situation was not easy. Many Brazilians farmers were used to slaves and treated the immigrants as indentured servants. In Southern Brazil, the Italian immigrants were living in well-developed colonies, but in southeastern Brazil they were living in semislavery conditions in the coffee plantations. Many denouncements caused great commotion in Italy, forcing the Italian government to issue a decree, which established barries to Italians go to Brazil.

                 Within the framework of the vast Italian diaspora into foreign lands during the course of a century, Italian emigration to Brazil has drawn a fair amount of attention. Yet it has failed to gain the degree of scholarly study that it deserves. The outstanding characteristics of this emigration are the relatively short time span in which it took place, and the sheer numbers of emigrants. Italian migration to Brazil took little time less than 50 years. The migratory flow came predominantly from northern Italy. The composition of the flow was marked by a family component, in contrast to the experience of other South America countries, such as Argentina, and to that of the U.S., where individual emigration by far preceded family groups. Italian emigration was concentrated in the last 25 years of the 19th century, but the greatest numbers arrived after slavery was abolished in 1888. The Italian community quickly turned into the most important foreign ethnic groups in Brazil, exercising a decisive role not only in the economy but also in the cultural and political life of the country. After the difficulties faced by coffee plantations, a second phase of settlement can be observed as emigrants moved into the cities.

Privacy Day 2020

             Last Tuesday, 28th January, in the U.S., Canada and Europe was celebrated one of the most basic and important human right, the right to privacy.  All over the world they understand the importance of privacy to a dignified life, to autonomy, to security, to a life without harm, bullying, unjustified annoying, drag and intrusive situation.   We must all fight for this right, because with its violation many others rights are also violated. If you want to have an idea about its importance, imagine your life without your privacy. All dimensions of a person's life is harmed, his relationships, his employability, his socialization, his entrepreneurship, his health, his anonymity,  there is not one aspect of the person that is not affected. And it is not only the individual that suffers, the democracy, the rule of law, and the trust in the institutions are also damaged.  One more reason we need combat the human rights violations, the violators could think that they are able to do more and more. This is why can not have impunity in so serious violations, like privacy`s violations. Everybody should understand why we all need to fight against violations of human rights. And when they happened, we all must fight for reparation to the victims. If you saw a privacy's violation, record it, and be a witness.  This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at https://staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/about-dpd/. The second was published at https://iapp.org/connect/data-privacy-day/#. The third was published at https://iapp.org/about/what-is-privacy/. The fourth was published at https://www.cisomag.com/data-privacy-day-2020/

             Data Privacy Day began in the U.S. and Canada in January of 2008 as an extension of the Data Protection Day in Europe. Data Protection Day commemorates the January 28th, 1981, signing of Convention 108, the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. Data Privacy Day is observed annually on January 28. Data Privacy Day is the signature event in a greater privacy awareness and education effort. Year-round, National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) educates consumers on how they can own their online presence and shows organizations how privacy is good for business. NCSA's privacy awareness campaign is an integral component of Stop. Think. Connect. The globalonline safety, security and privacy campaign. On January 27th, 2014, the U.S. Congress adopted a resolution expressing support for the designation of January 28th as "National Data Privacy Day." Privacy Day is an international effort to empower individuals and encourage businesses to respect privacy. safeguard data and enable trust. Millions of people are unaware of an uninformed about how their personal information is being used, collected or shared in our digital society. Privacy Day aims to inspire dialogue and empower individuals and companies to take action. You can get involved at home, at work and in your community. Take action and help create a culture of privacy. NCSA provides free, non proprietary privacy awareness and education resources to help you spread the word about managing your privacy and protecting personal information.
                Data Privacy Day, which annually on January 28, is "an international effort to create awareness about the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust". Each year, the IAPP partners with Stay Safe Online to promote Privacy Day, and this year the celebrations are bigger than ever. Typically celebrated for one day only, the IAPP and KnowledgeNet are extending festivities throughout the entire month of January. Across the globe, KnowledgeNet Chapters will host their first gatherings of the year with the opportunity for you to network,  share professional experiences and have some fun, because privacy is worth celebrating. Raise awareness. Spark conversations and talk to others about why privacy and data protection is so important.
               What does privacy mean? Broadly speaking, privacy is the freedom from interference or intrusion. Information privacy is the right to have some control over how your personal information is collected and used. Ask most people these days what they think of when it comes to privacy and you are like to have a conversation about massive data breaches, wearable tech, social networking, targeted advertising miscues, not to mention the Snowden revelations.  With speed-of-light technological innovation, information privacy is becoming more complex by the minute as more data is being collected and exchanged. As the technology gets more sophisticated (indeed, invasive), so do the uses of data. And that leaves organizations facing an incredibly complex risk matrix for ensuring that personal information is protected. As a result, privacy has fast-emerged as perhaps the most significant consumer protection issue, if not citizen protection issue, in the global information economy. Data privacy is focused on the use and governance of personal data, things like putting policies in place to ensure that consumers' personal information is being collected, shared and used in appropriate ways. Security focuses more on protecting data from malicious attacks and the exploitation of stolen data for profit. While security is necessary for protecting data, it is not sufficient for addressing privacy.
                 This Data Privacy Day, we urge individuals and organizations around the world to learn from the fallout of the mega-breaches of the recent past. We provide five positive steps that companies around the world can take to better protect consumers, employees and more. Until recently, data privacy was only considered critical in the digital world. But as the digital and physical worlds intersect, it is now integral not only to secure an individual or a corporation's digital identity but also to avoid the safety of citizens being compromised. Data privacy considerations should underpin all company decisions, whether on the board level or on the shop floor and, this Privacy Day, organizations should encourage their entire workforce to reevaluate how they secure and manage data. It's now well-established that data is the world's most valuable asset and a tempting target for malevolent hackers with varying motivations. Hackers will inevitably be successful from time to time. Addressing this threat, and limiting how far they can infiltrate a network, is imperative in order to safeguard security.

One Year On From Brumadinho

                 This post is a summary of two articles. The first with the incomplete title above was published at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/01/24/one-year-brumadinho-miners-must-step-efforts-tackle-deadly-dams/. The second was published at   https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/one-year-on-brazilian-city-haunted-by-deadly-dam-collapse/2020/01/25/2cbd87c4-3f30-11ea-afe2-090eb37b60b1_story.html

                Four years ago, investors and companies were warned of a fundamental problem with the way waste from mining was being stored in tailing dams. Despite the death of 19 people in Mariana, and huge environmental damage, the issue was not properly addressed. Tragically an even larger disaster would occur just over three years later on January 25, 2019 in the same region of brazil resulting in the deaths of 270 people at Brumadinho. The response this time has been very different. today local community members will continue a solemn procession to the site of the disaster, and reflect on the news earlier this week that the former CEO of the company, Brazilian mining giant Vale. has been charged with murder. Tailings dams are some of the largest human-made structures on earth and supposed to last in perpetuity but some are not and more will colapse. Major interventions since the Brumadinho disaster by investors have included the demand for a new independent global standard of tailings management that is based upon the consequences of failure. This has resulted in an independent global Tailings Review led by former Swiss environment minister, Bruno Oberle and jointly convened through the International Council on Mining and Metals, U.N. Environment programme and Principles for Responsible Investment. Once the review was established, investors then wrote to over 700 companies and requested detailed disclosures for the first time on each individual tailings facility they had responsibility. As a result of these disclosures today we launch a new  public global database of the 1,800 tailings dams that have been identified to date. This is very much a first step and will integrate satellite imagery of each dam into the site as well as details of the safety classifications. Investors will also look to commit to reinforcing a new global standard and being prepared to consider denying finance to companies that do not comply. The first intervention is the need to create an international monitoring centre that provides objective monitoring of dams every minute all year round. We have systems like this for shipping and aviation and it is clear we need this for tailings dams. Second, we must remove the most dangerous tailings dams. A funding mechanism needs to be established, but one that can move at pace. This should not remove the responsibility of the company but enable immediate action. Lastly, industry with the support of investors needs to charge the application of new tech to remove the need for tailings dams. There are examples of companies that operate to the highest standards and these CEOs have been partners with investors in driving the kind of change that needs to happen. The urgency of this action is underlined by new data released today showing that the volume of tailings stored in disclosed facilities is set to increase 25% in the next five years. If we are to be honest these two disasters are the inevitable consequence of a mining system that has been pushed to maximise returns and reduce costs, with the treatment of waste in many respects as an externality. It is too soon to say if the interventions that investors are driving will be sufficient, but what is clear  is that the response this time is genuinely trying  to deal with the root of the problem. It will undoubtedly be difficult but this will eventually result in a safer mining sector that can provide the minerals and metals we need without the tragic consequences.

                 Like she has so many other nights, Ana Maria Gomes is awakened by the cries of her husband and tries to calm him as he shouts for help from his mine coworkers. She convinces him the dam collapse that devastated their city of Brumadinho and killed at least 270 people happened a year ago. Sebastião Gomes, recounted the episode and said he is learning to live with the nightmares. He is also undergoing psychiatric treatment. And he is not alone. Brumadinho is a city of 40,000 residents tortured by its past, and struggling to find a future, with doctors reporting spikes in the use of anti-anxiety medications and anti-depressants. The rupture of mining company Vale's dam created a wave of mud and debris. Some bodies still haven't been found, and perhaps never will be. For survivors and family members of victims, the dam's collapse was only the beginning. Use of anti-depressants jumped 56% in 2019 from the prior year, while anxiety medication rose 79% in the same period. "The impact on the population's mental health is similar to that caused by a huge disater. like Fukushima, or September 11 in the U.S." said Maila de Castro Neves, a professor of psychiatric at UFMG. De Castro will evaluate the impact of the dam's collapse on the local population over the coming years. She said local residents are in a "vulnerable state" at risk of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and even suicidal behavior. The human toll from the disaster is not even fully clear; the search for corpses continues. Rescuers are digging in the mud, trying to locate the bodies of 11 missing victims. The eve of the disaster's anniversary brought some hope to victims' families that their loved ones may find justice. Public prosecutors charged Vale, German auditing firm TUV SUD and 16 employees for intentional homicide and environmental crimes. Among the accused is Vale's former CEO, Fabio Schvartsman. Prosecutors say there is evidence the companies knew the mine was operating with "unacceptable" safety conditions, putting at risk the lives of its employees. Vale and TUV SUD executives face up to 30 years jail time. In a statement, Vale expressed that "the accusations of fraud are perplexing" and said it is collaborating with authorities. Schvartsman denied the charges against him and TUV SUD has said the cause of the dam failure still has not been conclusively clarified, adding that the company continues to cooperate with the investigation. The paralysis of mining activity, which generated about 60% of town revenue before the tragedy, has left Brumadinho's economic future unknown. Paradoxically, the economic impact was initially positive, as the city received an infusion of emergency funds from Vale and carried out recovery works. The company paid out more than $6 billion in compensation, heating up local activity. "We are aware that the increase in economic activity is temporary, and we are greatly concerned about the future in the medium- and long-term," said Brumadinho's mayor, Avismar Barcelos. The punishment was worse for riverside communities and farmers who relied on the Paraopeba River. For Gomes, the ex-Vale worker, everything changed. That day he suffered only scratches on his arms and knees, but mental damage endures: he has to undergo various psychological treatments. The money he received from Vale has afforded him financial stability, though he remains in litigation with the company and he is writing a book for catharsis. He also gives paid talks about mining to raise awareness about its risks.

                 

Compensation and Reparations

              This post is a summary of the article with the title above published at   https://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/compensation

              There is a growing awareness that addressing past injustice is a crucial part of the process of healing and reconciliation. In order to move towards a peaceful future, governments must acknowledge and respond to the wrongs and injuries of the past, especially human rights violations. Doing so takes various forms. One way is through compensation programs and reparations for the victims of injustice. To commit injustice is to violate or suppress people's rights or fundamental freedoms as recognized by international law. Unfortunately, many instances of injustice can be tied to policies either condoned or consciously chosen by governments. These state-sponsored human rights violations cause serious damage to the physical and moral integrity of individuals. Although these harms are often irreparable, international and national courts have required states to pay victims compensation for both material and psychological injury sustained as a direct result of their actions or policies. This serves both to acknowledge the violation and to sanction the state in question. A society that once tolerated human rights abuses must come to terms with the past, accept responsibilty, and try to make amends. Customary international law provides the legal foundation for victims' right to compensation. Various international treaties have recognized that victims of human rights violations have a right to restitution, compensation and rehabilitation. And the obligation to provide compensation for victims of injustice has become part of international humanitarian law. Such law stress the importance of publicly recognizing the damages caused by injustice and of addressing the needs of victims. Compensation serves a variety of important functions. First, it helps victims to manage the material aspect of their loss. In many cases, monetary reparations in the form of monthly payments are essential to ensure victims' survival. Monetary compensation programs may also deter the state from future abuses by imposing a financial cost on such misdeeds. However, many note that such reparations are not primarily about money, but rather about making crucial repairs to individuals' psyches, and to social and political institutions. Compensation programs serve to acknowledge wrongdoing, restore survivors' dignity, and raise public awareness about the harms victims have suffered. For this reason, reparations for former victims or/and their family members are often a psychologically necessary component of the healing process. This can help victims to come to terms with the traumatic events that have occurred. Indeed, compensation programs are a crucial part of restorative justice and serve as focal points in the healing process. They can help victims move beyond the desire for revenge and make it possible to repair relationships that have been damaged by acts of injustice. Restitution paid to the victims can serve as a symbolic apology and signify a move to make amends. Lastly, compensation programs serve to promote and protect human rights. They aim to recognize the harms victims have suffered, correct these abuses, and prevent the reoccurrence of such acts. Customary international law suggests that the victims of human rights violations must receive a remedy for the injuries they have suffered. But what counts as an appropriate remedy? Apologies are not enough to satisfy victims's demands for justice and allay their fears that the same atrocities might be repeated. Victims should receive compensation for all damages that result from the wrongful act, including any profits that would have been possible if had those unjust acts not occurred. This includes lost educational opportunities, wages, business profits, etc. It also encompasses physical, psychological, and material damages, as well as medical and legal costs associated with the violations. Measures should also be taken to ensure that relatives of missing persons receive adequate financial assistance to carry out investigations. Family members of those killed should receive pensions for lost wages. However, compensation need not be strivtly monetary. It should also include necessary psychological and social assistance and support. This includes the establishment of local treatment centers for the victims and rehabilitation systems. Compensation can also be provided through the restitution of property that was wrongfully seized and the reallocation of economic resources. And in cases where victims have lost their employment or their employability was harmed. Program to return employment or property that was wrongfully removed aim to re-establish the situation that would have existed if the wrongful act had not taken place. In addition, states must carry out various initiatives to ensure that justice is served and guarantee that abuses will not be repeated. This includes both formal apologies and the prosecution and punishment of those responsible for the violations. In order to ensure that violations will not reoccur, states must also provide human rights training to military forces and law enforcement officials, protect human rights workers, and strengthen the judiciary. While monetary compensation is indeed integral to addressing injustice, many have noted that such programs are often limited. Regimes that have tolerated human rights abuses may be unwilling to recognize the injustices. In fact, individuals responsible for violations may retain their positions and oppose such programs. While many victims will initially be satisfied with monetary compensation, they may grow increasingly dissatisfied as time passes. If victims do not feel that justice has been served, they will find difficult to put the past behind them. In addition to suffering, victims of violations typically suffer psychological injury and emotional distress. Compensation programs that simply pay out financial grants are not sufficient to help individuals overcome their trauma. This is because the amount of distress, injustice, and anger that victims typically struggle with is immeasurable. Ultimate responsibility for ensuring the victims receive compensation should reside with the state. Victims often do not know the identities of those who perpetrated abuses against them. Also, because the state has obligations under international law to uphold human rights, it has a duty to afford remedies to victims. State responsibility results from actions directly attributable to state agents, from those that only indirectly involve the state, and from a state's failure to prevent human rights abuses. Even if governments actors do not perpetrate violations, the state bears responsibility for reparations. In addition, if the old government that committed or tolerated the abuses does not provide compensation, the obligation carries over to the successor government. Third parties often play a crucial role in ensuring that all victims receive assistance. Agencies and mechanisms that deal with human rights can make recommendations to governments about compensation for those who have suffered from human rights abuses. Outside actors can also insist that victims receive reparations and pressure governments to implement such programs. In many cases, countries need help to establish mechanisms to make effective remedies available. Outside governments often offer assistance to refugees who have been victims of violations, and NGOs often assist with compensation efforts. This includes upholding victims' right to reparation, working to expose violations, and helping victims to pursue their claims. In addition, more and more intergovernmental organizations are helping to fund projects that assist former victims.

How Social Media Has Changed Politics

                   This post is a summary of two articles. The first with the title above published in August 2019 at   houghtco.com/how-social-media-has-changed-politics-3367534. The second was published at   https://sysomos.com/2016/10/05/social-media-affects-politics/

                  The use of social media has dramatically changed the way campaigns are run and how citizens interact with their elected officials. The prevalence of social media in politics has made elected officials and candidates more accountable and accessible to voters. And the ability to publish content and broadcast it to millions of people instantaneously allows campaigns to manage their candidates's images based on rich sets of analytics in real time and at almost no cost. Social media tools allow politicians to speak directly to voters without spending a dime. It has become fairly common for political campaigns to rpoduce commercials and publish them for free on YouTube instead of, or in addition to, paying for time on TV or the radio. Often, journalists covering campaigns will write about those YouTube ads, broadcasting their message to a wider audicence at no cost to the politicians. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have become instrumental in organizing campaigns. They allow like-minded voters and activists to easily share news and information such as campaign events with each other. Political campaigns can tap into a wealth of information or analytics about the people who are following them on social media and customize their messages based on selected demographics. A campaign may find one message appropriate for voters under 30 years old will not be as effective with those over 60 years old. Some campaigns have used so-called "money bombs" to raise large amounts of cash in a short time. Money bombs are typically 24-hour periods in which candidates press their supporters to donate money. They use social media to get the word out and often tie these money bombs to specific controversies that emerge during campaigns. Direct access to voters also has its downside. Politicians to send out unfiltered posts has landed many candidates in hot water or embarrassing situations. A good example is Anthony Weiner, who lost his seat in Congress after exchanging sexually explicit  messages and photos with women on his Facebook account. Asking for feedback from voters or constituents can be a good thing. Many campagns hire staffers to monitor their social media channels for a negative response and scrub anything unflattering. But such a bunker-like mentality can make a campaign appear defensive and closed off from public. Well-run modern-day campaign will engage the public regardless of whether their feedback is negative or positive. The value of social media is in its immediacy. Politicians and campaign do absolutely nothing without first knowing how their policy statements or moves will play among the electorate. Twitter and Facebook both allow them to instantaneously gauge how the public is responding to an issue or controversy. Politicians can then adjust their campaigns accordingly, in real time, without the use of high-priced consultants or expensive polling. Social media tools have allowed citizens to easily join together to petition the government and their elected officials, leveraging their numbers against the influence of powerful lobbyists and monied special interests. make no mistake, lobbyists and special interest still have the upper hand, but the day will come when the power of social media allows like-minded citizens to join together in ways that will be just as powerful.

                The political landscape has changed quite a bit in the last couple of decades. The internet has played a large role in this transformation. Social media, in particular, is now a serious factor in political campaigns and in the way people think about issues. Candidates and their supporters constantly post their views on social media. One of the ways that social media has transformed politics is the sheer speed at which news, polls results and rumors are shared. While you can access news on many websites at any hour, most people spend more time on social media than they do on news or political websites. This mean that you get all of the latest trending news stories and opinions shared by your friends whenever you log in. One of the positive effects that social media has on politics is the opportunity for voters to interact more easily with candidates and elected officials. Targeting is used throughout the advertising industry to make sure that ads and messages reach the right audience. In the age of social media, politicians and people running for office are able to target their campaigns. Political campaigns are now influenced by every story, whether true or not, that gets spread around social media. It's getting more and more difficult to separate actual news from fake news online. Social media makes this distinction especially confusing. The constant stream of memes, links and rumors about political leaders and candidates is a mixture of truth, lies, satire and speculation. There are now quite a few fake or satirical "news" sites that often post stories that sound authentic. There are also sites with political biases or those peddling various unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. It's therefore necessary to use a great deal of discernment before believing anything.  One of the hidden forces that operates on social media is confirmation bias. The majority of your friends and followers on social media probably share your outlook. This means that the vast majority of posts, pins or other content you read on  social media tend to express the same point of view, one that you already hold. It's natural for people to surround themselves with others of like mind. This is true both online and offline. On social media, this can create the illusion that "everybody" thinks the same way. People will post links to stories that confirm your existing bias. They will repeat opinions you already hold. For this reason, social media may reinforce our opinion and make it more difficult to understand alternative points of view. In politics, it can help to make people more opinionated and less tolerant of others. On the other hand, if you connect with an assortment of people with diverse viewpoints, you can overcome confirmation bias and use social media to make you more open-minded. There are sure to be many political changes that come about due to social media. There are now proposals for internet voting, which could lead to more people participating in elections. As social media becomes ever more popular, its impact on politics will only increase over time, it will be interesting to observe how this plays out. 

Fourteen Reasons Privacy Matters

                This post is a summary of the article published in  October 2013 with the incomplete title above at   https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=libfacpub

                This article attempts to expand understanding by reviewing scholarly literature on privacy from a wide variety of disciplines, including anthropology, law, philosophy, psychology and sociology. Addressing the question of whether privacy is a value that spans cultures, the article traces a number of major themes, enumerating a host of individual, interpersonal, and societal goods that are made possible by privacy. The volume of literature on privacy is immense. This review does not claim to be comprehensive or evaluative, and it naturally struggle with the difficulty of summarizing deep and complex arguments in mere sentences  and paragraphs. Privacy is a fundamental, moral right ro which people are entitled, rather than simply a legal right or a right that can be explicated in terms of other rights such as property, or life. The Professor of law Daniel Solove identifies six general types of definition of privacy: 1) the right to be alone.  2) the ability to limit access to the self by others.  3) secrecy or concealment of certain mattera.  4) the ability to control information about oneself.  5) the protection of one's ´personhood, individuality and dignity. 6) control over one' intimate relationship. Alan Westin claims that needs for individual and group privacy and resulting norms are present in virtually every society, and he cites a host of anthropological studies documenting the various ways societies  achieve privacy. Westin also cites studies of animal behavior and social organization that suggest that human and animals share basic mechanisms for claiming privacy. He says "the animal's struggle to achieve privacy and participation provides one of the basic processes of animal life. In this sense, the quest for privacy is not restricted to man alone, but arises in the biological and social processes of all life." Barry Scwartz makes the case that even small children have the privacy impulse. In his exploration of the basis for human rights concepts such as the individual self, autonomy, and privacy. Larry Nucci examines a number of recent studies and finds that "areas of personal choice and discretion are maintained by individuals across a range of cultures, personal is not an invemtion of Western culture, but a psychological necessity for the establishment of the social self." Following are fourteen reasons privacy matters, drawn from a multidisciplinary reading of scholarly literature and organized into three broad sections: I ) benefits to the individual, II ) benefits to personal relationships, III ) benefits to society.  Benefits to the Individual. 1) Privacy protects from overreach of social interactions and provides opportunity for relaxation and concentration. - privacy protect us from "social overreaching" and gives individuals social freedom by limiting the control that others have over their lives. 2) Privacy affirms self-ownership - Privacy is a fundamental right that enables people to think of their existence as their own and protect the individual's interest in becoming, being, and remaining a person." Stanley Benn says the reason we allow people privacy is not to give them a better chance to be autonomous; rather, autonomous persons are worthy of respect and entitled to be unobserved. He argues that even "secret waching", is wrong, because it deliberately deceives a person about his world. Charles Fried describes that privacy serves not to protect things we will share only with friends but to protect certain thoughts from the whole world.  3) Privacy prevents intrinsic loss of freedom of choice - Privacy is not just a means of protecting freedom, it is itself constitutive of freedom in a number of important ways. The wrong is in replacing personal anonymity by notoriety, in turning a private life into a public spectable.  4) Privacy allows freedom from self-censorship and anticipatory conformity and allows people to explore. Jeffrey Reiman talks about the chilling effect on speech and action that occurs when people believe they are or may be under scrutiny and may be subject to punishment or denial of benefits and opportunities. In addition of lost liberty, many of the above writers express concern about the resulting diminishemnt of people as unique, autonomous individuals with human dignity.  5) Privacy helps prevent sorting of people into categories that can lead to lost opportunities and deeper inequalities. many scholars are concerned that the gathering of data about individuals and the sorting of people into categories can lead to a discriminatory process that sorts individuals on the basis of their estimated value or worth and reaches into every aspect of individuals' lives. Social scientists identifies several problems related to this data collection and sorting. And when used as a basic tool in decison making, mistakes and misidentification can lead to injustices.  6) Privacy prevents being misjudged out of context - Jeffrey Rosen writes about gossip and suggest that "the privacy of the backstage protect us from the unfairness of being misjudged by strangers who do not have time to put our informal speech and conduct into a broader context."  7) Privacy provides a physical space in which an individual can control the artifacts that support the narrative of her/his life - Iris Young observes that much of the theoretical discussion of privacy focuses on the mental aspects, and failing to notice sufficiently the material bases of privacy.  8) Privacy preserves the chance to make a fresh start - Viktor Schonberger note that the commitment of vast amounts of information to digital memory, along with the end of the need to dispose of older data for reasons of space, have made it less likely that people will forget past bahavior. This significant societal shift concerns Schonberger because digital memory create a temporal rather than a spatial version of the panopticon and transfer power from the surveilled to the surveyors.  Benefits to Personal Relationships.  9) Privacy allows individuals to be authentic and to play appropriate roles in various contexts - Rosen responds to the view by claiming that those who defend transparency are confusing secrecy with privacy, when secrecy is a small dimension of privacy. He says, "even those who claim that society would be better if people were less embarrassed about discussing their sexual activites in public, still manage to feel annoyed and invaded when they are solicited by telemarketers during the dinner. Rosen also observes that defenders of transparency seem to hold a simplistic view of human personality as unitary and integrated. James Rachels arguing that varying behavior with different people is not accidental; it is in part what defines different social relationships. This is why privacy is valuable in ordinary situations. 10) Privacy support intimacy and the building of relationships - a number of writers have examined the value of privacy in building and managing intimate relationships. Relationships shielded by privacy give people the opportunity to share confidences. Charles Fried claims that respect, love, friendship, and trust require privacy for their existence. According to him, intimacy is the sharing of information selectively, in a context in which one has the right not to share with everyone or with anyone. It is privacy that confers this right and creates "the moral capital we spend in friendship and love." Monitoring of people is problematic because it deprives people of the exclusivity of their sharing and makes it impossible to give the gift of intimacy.  Benefits to Society.  11) Privacy supports the common good - Solove recognizes the work of other scholars who have noted that privacy problems extend beyond harms to particular individuals, can affect the nature of society, and can impede individual activites that contribute to the social good. Privacy has a social value, because while it protects the individual, it does so for the sake of society. Solove also observes the breeches of confidentiality involve violations of trust, not only individual emotional distress, and he claims that "there is a strong value in ensuring that promises are kept."  12) Privacy protects from power imbalance between individuals and government/organizations - civil rights, freedom of expression, the possibility of taking part in political discussions free from fear of negative reactiobs, are some of the fields where a changed information balance may produce adverse impacts. Information tech will contribute not only to the centralization of social control but also to its intensification. Solove discuss concerns about due process and power imbalances related to surveillance and data gathering. He emphasize that the issue is not whether individuals have something to hide, rather the issue is about the way people are treated by the government and organizations. They affect the power relationship between people and institutions and create a sense of helplessness and powerlessness.  13) Privacy supports democracy, political activity, and service - As discussed earlier, surveillance and lack of privacy can have a chilling effect on free speech, free associations and other rights that are essential for democracy. This chilling effects also harm by reducing the number and variety of viewpoints expressed and the degree of freedom people have to engage in political activity.  14) Privacy provides space in society for disagreement - privacy protects a space for legitimately different views from the constant burden of justifying  their differences.