Starbucks Anti-bias Training Day

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       The Big Day

 Today is the day, where American coffee giant, Starbucks, has temporarily closed around 8,000 of its stores to conduct anti-bias training. This is being done in effort after a case of racial profiling took place last month on April 12, 2018.

The Story Behind It

Two Black American men, Rashon Nelson, and Donte Robinson, had an employee call the police on them in a Philadelphia Starbucks location. They were then handcuffed and removed from the location. The reason for this is because they had not bought anything. The men only wanted to temporarily use the facility, while they were waiting to meet up with a friend. Unfortunately, this lead to the store getting upset and viewing them as a threat, calling it trespassing. They were told to leave before the officers were called, but they did not want to leave. They rightfully believed that they were not doing anything wrong. Since then, what has been dubbed as “viral video of two black men being arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks” has exploded massively all over local news. It has resulted in intense outcry, and a call for people to boycott Starbucks for its actions.

Official Responses

Starbucks Coffee has made the following statement:

“We apologize to the two individuals and our customers and are disappointed this led to an arrest. We take these matters seriously and clearly have more work to do when it comes to how we incidents in our stores. We are reviewing our policies and will continue to engage with the community and the police department to try to ensure these type of situations never happen in any of our stores.”

The CEO of Starbucks Corporation, Kevin Johnson, has issued the following complete statement in the Starbucks Newsroom:

Dear Starbucks Partners and Customers:

By now, you may be aware of a disheartening situation in one of our Philadelphia-area stores this past Thursday, that led to a reprehensible outcome.

I’m writing this evening to convey three things:

First, to once again express our deepest apologies to the two men who were arrested with a goal of doing whatever we can to make things right. Second, to let you know of our plans to investigate the pertinent facts and make any necessary changes to our practices that would help prevent such an occurrence from ever happening again. And third, to reassure you that Starbucks stands firmly against discrimination or racial profiling.

In the coming days, I will be joining our regional vice president, Camille Hymes—who is on the ground in Philadelphia—to speak with partners, customers and community leaders as well as law enforcement. Most importantly, I hope to meet personally with the two men who were arrested to offer a face-to-face apology.

We have immediately begun a thorough investigation of our practices. In addition to our own review, we will work with outside experts and community leaders to understand and adopt best practices. The video shot by customers is very hard to watch and the actions in it are not representative of our Starbucks Mission and Values. Creating an environment that is both safe and welcoming for everyone is paramount for every store. Regretfully, our practices and training led to a bad outcome—the basis for the call to the Philadelphia police department was wrong. Our store manager never intended for these men to be arrested and this should never have escalated as it did.

We also will further train our partners to better know when police assistance is warranted. Additionally, we will host a company-wide meeting next week to share our learnings, discuss some immediate next steps and underscore our long-standing commitment to treating one another with respect and dignity. I know our store managers and partners work hard to exceed our customers’ expectations every day—which makes this very poor reflection on our company all the more painful.

Finally, to our partners who proudly wear the green apron and to customers who come to us for a sense of community every day: You can and should expect more from us. We will learn from this and be better.

Respectfully,

Kevin Johnson

CEO

Settlement

Nelson and Robinson have received a settlement earlier this month, getting a symbolic $1 each, and free tuition at Arizona State University. Their arrest record was also expunged as part of the deal.

Meaning Of The New Policy

Permitted acts:

•People will be allowed to hang out at Starbucks without making a purchase
•People will be allowed to use Starbucks’ bathroom without making a purchase
•Starbucks asks customers to maintain the welcoming environment by using spaces as intended, being considerate of others, communicating with respect and acting responsibly.

Prohibited acts:

•No drugs, including use and sales of drugs.
•No violation of the law, including stealing or indecent exposure.
•No drinking.
•No pornography.
•No smoking.
•No sleeping.
•No excessive noise, including talking too loudly, or playing loud music.
•No unhygienic acts.
•No obscenity or unwanted sexual advances.
•No panhandling or solicitation.

Conclusion

While one day of anti-bias training will not make a revolutionary change, the statement and intended message of this day, highlights a problem that is still ongoing in 2018: Racism. The fact that Starbucks has responded quickly and outlined their steps and actions to make the company better, shows that their commitment to ensuring equality, compassion and professionalism. Some have raised concerns over homeless people or individuals under the influence of a substance taking advantage of Starbuck’s facilities. As written above, they have clearly placed limits and regards on safety and maintaining a family-friendly environment. Nevertheless, time will ultimately show how Starbucks will fare from here and onward.

China Dress: Simply a Dress or More Than That?

Disclosure: Millennium River is an independent website that uses hyperlinks. Some of these links are affiliate links. When you click and purchase a product(s) through these links, I may earn a commission on qualifying sales. This is done at no extra expense to you. You may also support this website via PayPal. Unless it is clearly stated, the content is not sponsored.

What is it?

The China dress, as most English speakers often call it, is also known the cheongsam (長衫) in Cantonese, pronounced “chang-shen” or qipao (旗袍) in Mandarin, pronounced “chee-pow”. It is a one-piece, close-fitting dress for women that originates from China.

History

During the time when the Manchu ruled China, in the period of the Qing dynasty (1636 – 1912), a man named Nurhachi set up the Eight Banner System. This was an administrative and military system for organizing all Manchu families into administrative divisions. The Banner system was made up of Manchus, Mongols and Han, who were collectively known as Banner people. Under the Manchu influence, the women wore the traditional dress that Manchu women wore, which eventually became known as the qipao. This garment was originally loose-fitting, covering most of a woman’s body with only the head, hands and feet shown. Under Qing dynastic laws after 1636, all Han Chinese men in the Banner System had to wear the male equivalent of the qipao, called the chángpáo (長袍), pronounced “chang-pow”. In addition to this, they also had to adopt the male Manchurian hairstyle. As time moved on, laws changed, and several other aspects of Chinese culture changed, including the qipao. Its current iconic appearance today, was fashioned in Shanghai during the 1920s. During the course of its development, two different styles have come into being: Beijing and Shanghai style qipao. The Shanghai style has much more Western influences in its design, while the Beijing style focuses on traditional patterns and colourful decorations. The Shanghai style, with its close-fitting, Western influenced nature, is the more popular of the two styles.

When Do People Wear Qipaos?

During the 17th century, women wore a qipao almost every day. In Shanghai and Hong Kong, during the 1920s and again in the 1950s, the qipao was worn informally quite often. After this period, it was regarded as a work dress, meaning that it was rarely worn as an everyday casual garment, until the 1980s. Today, Chinese now wear the qipao mainly on formal occasions such as weddings or festivals, with Chinese New Year being an excellent prominent example. They are also commonly worn as uniforms in some restaurants, hotels and on airplanes in Asia, as well as some restaurants tied to the culture outside of Asia. Though the qipao generally has a formal or work related image, they can be worn outside of these scenarios. Similarly to Japan’s kimono, the qipao has garnered much international attention over the years, and has been worn by many non-Asian women, who admire the beauty and elegancy of it.

Encrypting Your Smartphone’s MicroSD Card

Disclosure: Millennium River is an independent website that uses hyperlinks. Some of these links are affiliate links. When you click and purchase a product(s) through these links, I may earn a commission on qualifying sales. This is done at no extra expense to you. You may also support this website via PayPal. Unless it is clearly stated, the content is not sponsored.

Notice: This article was originally written on April 18, 2016, hence the frequent references to devices and subjects of that year. Certain areas of this article have also been polished and reformatted.

MicroSD Cards at a Glance

MicroSD cards are amazing, convenient tools for people that love to take lots of pictures, shoot lots of videos, download lots of songs, and store many other forms of data without taking up their smartphone’s internal storage. They come in various size formats from as low as 4GB, and can even go all the way up to 200GB and beyond. There are also many classes with various speeds designed for different purposes, such as Class 4, Class 10 UHS-I and more. Some high-end cards even come equipped with resistances to certain elements such as water, shock and vibration, temperatures extremes and several others depending on the type of card purchased. Unlike cloud services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive which all require Internet access in order to get your files onto your device, microSD cards do not need this. This allows users to view and access files without Wi-fi, cellular data or any Internet connection of the sort. They are also readily available at both physical and online stores such as Walmart, Best Buy, Staples, Amazon and plenty more.

What About Your Safety?

Now while shooting exciting videos of your outdoor adventures, listening to albums of your favourite songs, taking pictures of the Temple of Heaven, or selfies of your variable facial expressions can all be great, memorable fun, what about protecting your data? Some might not really think or worry about it much, but it is something that should be thought about and taken seriously. The terms privacy, security and encryption made a lot of headlines in 2016, despite the year being only four months in at the time. The reason? These matters have been constantly placed under threats, or have been facing an exploit of some sort. The flexible, portable nature of microSD cards can make them great in many ways, but this in turn can also make them vulnerable and risky if they end up in the wrong hands. Thankfully, users with Android smartphones running 5.0 and up, as well as Blackberry 10 users, have the option to encrypt the memory card, as well as the phone itself.

Drawbacks to Encryption?

Once a memory card is encrypted, it cannot be read on other devices except for the device it was encrypted on. If a user has encrypted their card before losing or misplacing it, the data will not be able to show up on other electronics. That said, encrypting is not 100% bullet-proof, as it does have its caveats. If a smartphone is lost with the card inside it, and the phone is not password protected, then the user risks having their data exposed to the person that has their phone. Another issue lies with phone wiping: if a user wipes their phone’s data without decrypting the card first, the data will become inaccessible, even if they try to use the card on the very same phone. Another potential problem is speed. Using a low-end card with slow reading and writing, may cause lower performance. Despite some of disadvantages, the benefits of encrypting your microSD card outweighs them. Using a card with fast read and write speeds, and backing up data periodically, are good ways to counter some of the shortcomings revolved around an encrypted microSD card.

How Does Card Encryption Work?

Memory card encryption is supposed to make your smartphone’s card secure, but how exactly does it make it secure? What does encryption mean itself? Encryption works by taking data and wrapping it up in a tough layer, so that it cannot be opened without the proper credentials. It is possible for the key to be broken by a hacker with the right tools, knowledge, enough time and processing power. However, encryption methods and keys are constantly being improved, so it can be exceptionally difficult to virtually impossible depending on the method of encryption and the number of layers present. MicroSD encryption keys are created by using hardware inside your phone to generate a 128-bit key. This key is created and stored within the phone and can only be accessed when it is granted by the system, such as when you unlock your phone or use a trusted application to log into the device.

How to Encrypt Your MicroSD Card

To encrypt a microSD card on Android devices running Android Lollipop 5.0 or higher, go to Settings> Personal> Security. Here, you will be given options to encrypt your phone or microSD card. Choose accordingly and follow on-screen instructions and warnings. Be aware that not all Android smartphones have microSD card slots. On BlackBerry 10 devices, swipe down from the top of the screen to bring down the menu. From here, go to Settings> Security and Privacy> Encryption. From here, you will see toggles for both device encryption and media card encryption. Choose the areas of data you want to encrypt and follow on-screen instructions and warnings. Windows 10 Mobile users are in a rather interesting situation: even though most Windows 10 Mobile smartphone makers design their phones with memory card slots or dedicated dual SIM (subscriber identification module) spaces, the operating system currently does not give them the option to encrypt their memory cards. It is still possible to encrypt the phone’s internal storage as way to get a form of encrypted protection. As for iPhone users, they have never had MicroSD or dedicated SIM slots, since the time of the 1st generation iPhone, up to the latest iPhone SE. However, like Microsoft’s Windows 10, Apple’s iOS 9 does offer a way to encrypt the phone’s data to keep it safe from prying eyes.

Summary

Whether it be a smartphone like the BlackBerry Passport or LG G5 with microSD cards that can be encrypted, or the Lumia 950 XL which has memory expansion with no encryption, or phones like the Huawei Nexus 6P and iPhone 6S which do not offer memory expansion, there are ways for all users to take advantage of using some form of encrypted data protection.

Keystroke logging

Disclosure: Millennium River is an independent website that uses hyperlinks. Some of these links are affiliate links. When you click and purchase a product(s) through these links, I may earn a commission on qualifying sales. This is done at no extra expense to you. You may also support this website via PayPal. Unless it is clearly stated, the content is not sponsored.

Notice: This article was originally written on April 12, 2016. Some areas of it have been polished prior its upload today, May 2, 2018.

What is a keystroke logger?

A keystroke logger, also known as keylogger for short, is a type of program or small hardware designed used for the purposes of monitoring and logging every stroke and click a user makes on their keyboard. Since keyloggers, especially the types installed as software, often go unnoticed by victims, this makes them ideal for thieves and other criminals looking to gain access to account information, credit card numbers, user names, passwords, and other types of confidential information. Though they may be often used for malicious intentions, they can also be used for more legitimate purposes. Employers for instance, may use them to make sure that employees do not copy or leak out any confidential files or information, troubleshoot technical problems, as well as to monitor their productivity on work devices. Law enforcement groups may use them to analyze and track affairs linked to the use of personal computers. Despite these uses, keyloggers can, and are often abused of their capabilities. Therefore, groups that use them for legitimate reasons must be aware of how far, and to what extent they can use them. Unauthorized use of keyloggers is considered a serious criminal offence many jurisdictions.

Brief history

Due to the secretive nature of keystroke loggers, the exact date of when they were first implemented can be difficult to trace. However, declassified United States documents released in the past have revealed that the Soviets managed to create keystroke loggers dating back to the 1970s, and successfully installed them in at least thirteen electric typewriting machines at America’s Embassy and the Consulate buildings in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia. Another event in the past where keylogging took place is when American computer scientist, Perry Kivolowitz, wrote one and posted it to a website with the intentions of restricting access on UNIX systems.

Software Vs Hardware

A keystroke logging program does not require physical access to a user’s device. Most software keyloggers typically arrive onto computers as unwanted malware by opening infected file attachments in e-mails, peer-to-peer, messaging, social networks, and by simply visiting infected websites that can download them without a user’s consent. They can even be downloaded or purchased outright from certain vendors to be placed onto a target’s computer to monitor their activity. An example of such a scenario would be with a distrustful spouse, who desires to monitor their partner’s online activity for infidelity. As with all keyloggers, software-based keyloggers work by collecting, storing and uploading typed information into the program, allowing it to be later retrieved by the person that installed the program. They can do this by starting the program to show them everything the user has typed since it was last activated. Malicious keylogger programs can be prevented by following basic security practices, such as staying away from dangerous websites, avoiding suspicious links in e-mail, monitoring a system’s performance, and keeping up to date with official software releases for the device’s operating system.

While software-based keyloggers are readily available, some keyloggers can also be implemented entirely as hardware devices and serve the exact same function as their software-based counterparts. Due to their physical nature, they must be physically attached to the target’s computer. They are usually placed in between the computer keyboard and the computer, often inline with the keyboard’s cable connector. Because of this, they can sometimes be detected and removed if a savvy user notices a suspicious plug, Universal Serial Bus or gadget at the back of their device. However, some companies actually sell keyboards with integrated keyloggers, meaning that there is no way to visually notice them. These keystroke loggers have integrated memory chips that allow them to log a year or more worth of typing. To retrieve the information, a preset sequence of random characters are typed to bring up a menu of commands. Keyboards with hidden keyloggers are not something the general public usually needs to be concerned about, as long as buyers exercise caution of which brands, websites or companies they buy their keyboards. In extreme situations of fear or uncertainty, a keyboard may brought to an expert to have it taken apart and examined, but again, such a scenario is likely rare, and resorting to such a drastic measure rarely, if ever, will need to take place.

Windows 10’s keystroke logging exploit?

Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system has received countless articles and reports about various violations of privacy during the time before, and after its original launch. Keystroke logging was one of the areas criticized, mainly because of the following statement:

“Send Microsoft info about how I write to help us improve typing and writing in the future.”

Microsoft has commented numerous times on these claims stating that some are highly exaggerated or downright false, and that they make it clear of which information they do gather, when they use it, how they use it, and the fact that Windows 10 users are given the choice to voluntarily opt out of many areas, and toggle privacy settings. It can be very easy to read, spread and misinterpret information. However, regardless of whether users enjoy Microsoft and their services or not, it is very important to read and understand what is being said. In the case of keystroke logging, Microsoft, as would Google, Apple and others,  get into serious legal trouble if keystroke logging software were discovered in Windows 10, logging user data unknowingly to upload all their confidential information back the company.

Summary

The idea of keystroke logging can sound alarmingly scary for a user. Being aware of what forms they come in, how they work, how they arrive and knowing how to prevent, detect and eliminate them is the best solution for staying safe.