Hi, I found the article quite an eye opener and I also found the replies quite informative about a US citizen rights too and how to protect yourself against the law. http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/13/10657012-up-against-the-wall-s hould-district-be-allowed-to-demand-middle-schoolers-facebook-password
<snip> " One important distinction noted by (ACLU) Nelson: While she believes demands for a student's Facebook password were a clear Fourth Amendment violation, there's no constitutional issue raised by a school official learning about a private communication that's volunteered by another student. In other words, students' private Facebook chatter is only as private as the participants make it." </snip> I was surprised to learn that you do not have a legal right to privacy behind a privacy wall in the US. Presumably, this would be true for Freedombox users in the US too. I wish the case was against the informant so that people could better understand/protect their right to privacy. I have heard the term protected/private speech, but it must be just an urban myth and not a legal right to privacy. Obviously, people like me are being lulled into a false sense of privacy. I did a quick check on privacy and although there are various laws, Australians do not have a right to privacy under these conditions either. I was also surprised to learn that the girl used "her own computer and while off campus" still didn't offer her any jurisdictional protection from the school. Still, I have some suggestions for FBX, but I am not sure if they are possible; 1. The article mentioned that the girl was not protected by Facebooks T&C's for being force to reveal her password because she was under age. This comment suggests that if she was of age she could have been protected by Facebook. By extension, if somebody bought an FBX, could their privacy be protected from informants by a FreedomBox T&C, i.e. an informant could be prosecuted? 2. Only "registered devices" (digital certificates) can access a FBX Account, i.e. the student would not be able to access her FBX Account from the principal's computer. In this case, the student's computer was off-campus which would have protected the student, since her parents would never have given the sheriff the right to enter their home without a warrant. 3. I do like James poison pill password/cert that would nuke the account which would be a necessary option if the student's computer were on campus. It's probably necessary in this age of smartphone kids. Outside of FBX, I do think it's also important to find out what one can do under difficult circumstances as suggested by John Gilmore. I have also learnt that as James said teach your kids to say "I want my Mommy" under such difficult circumstances. Thank you all for such an informative thread and all the links springing from that original article. - fiftyfour - _______________________________________________ Freedombox-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss
