Spying in the shower
”I FROZE, I didn’t know what to do, I felt trapped … I needed to get out to try to feel safe.”
This was how a female sailor on board HMAS Parramatta yesterday described her shock on January 2 this year when, drying herself after a shower, she glimpsed a mirror allegedly angled towards her from beneath the adjacent shower stall.
It was just after 7am and the ship was anchored off Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told a navy court-martial in Sydney yesterday that as she had made her way into the bathroom she noticed Lieutenant James (”Jim”) McLaren shaving himself at a sink nearby.
At the time, they were the only occupants of the area which the navy calls the ”showers and heads”. She and Lieutenant McLaren had exchanged brief ”good mornings” before they both entered separate but adjoining shower stalls.
She had turned the water off after two or three minutes and was bent over, drying her lower legs, when she saw the mirror, which she testified was ”in the palm of a hand”, pointing in her direction.
She fled the cubicles and ran into Lieutenant Christopher Andersen, the ship’s medical officer, who had come in to use the sinks.
”She was in an acute distressed state,” Lieutenant Andersen told the hearing yesterday. ”She looked so distressed that I thought she had witnessed something quite terrible or catastrophic.”
”She said ‘Jim, Jim!’ … I thought he had committed suicide.”
Lieutenant McLaren is facing two charges before a military court presided over by Judge Advocate Jennifer Woodward.
He is charged with committing an act of indecency without consent, and as an alternative with acting in a manner likely to prejudice naval discipline.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Under cross examination by defending counsel, Major J. Lo Schiavo, the woman told the hearing she and Lieutenant McLaren had kissed in March last year after a social evening with other crew, but she had rebuffed his requests to pursue a relationship.
The case continues today.
In December, Lieutenant Commander John Alan Jones was convicted of seven charges of acts of indecency for repeatedly spanking a sailor on her bare bottom.
He is appealing against the verdict.
Article source: http://www.smh.com.au/national/spying-in-the-shower-20120430-1xv60.html
Sears Worker Secretly Taped Women for 3 Years
By Stephanie Rabiner, Esq. at FindLaw.com
Los Angeles police recently arrested Alejandro Gamiz, 27, on suspicion of burglary and the surreptitious filming of unsuspecting women. The maintenance worker at a North Hollywood Sears is accused of placing hidden cameras in the store’s fitting rooms and bathrooms.
Gamiz worked for the retailer for three years, and reportedly placed up to 60 cameras behind store walls. When a loss prevention employee recently noticed something suspicious during a routine inspection, the company notified the Los Angeles Police Department.
Sears has searched the store and investigators have since seized security footage, according to the official LAPD blog. Gamiz is also cooperating. Police, however, are not seeking to identify any of the victims at this time.
They may eventually want to, though. Sears caters to the entire family and sells clothing and other items to teenagers and children. If Alejandro Gamiz installed hidden cameras outside all women’s bathrooms and fitting rooms, chances are he recorded at least one underage individual. Depending on what the minor was doing on tape, he could arguably be liable for the creation and possession of child pornography.
Sexual activity is not a requirement for child pornography. The images only need be sufficiently sexually suggestive.
Such a charge would carry a significantly harsher punishment than the secret filming of undressed women. It would also give prosecutors the leverage needed to negotiate a longer sentence, should Gamiz choose to accept a plea deal. And given the extent and duration of his alleged crimes, prosecutors will likely want to put Alejandro Gamiz behind bars for as long as possible.
Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/03/tagblogsfindlawcom2012-blotter-idUS217002084520120503
DNS Auto Glass Responds to Hidden Camera Investigation
DNS Auto Glass Responds to Hidden Camera Investigation
May 2, 2012
by Katie O’Mara, komara [at] glass [dot] com
A recent hidden camera investigation into the DNS Auto Glass location in Louisville, Ky., has been making news in the Louisville area. The report, done by WAVE 3, allegedly caught a sales representative employed with the Louisville DNS Auto Glass shop committing insurance fraud.
According to video from the television station, the salesman was attempting to file a claim with an insurance company for a windshield replacement when the windshield only suffered a small, repairable crack.
“There was never a claim filed and it was not put through insurance. There was never a job set up or an appointment made,” says Jeff Searles, owner of DNS Auto Glass. “We are still in the process of investigating this. The salesperson that was represented on the video cannot be found to exist in any of our referral sources. It’s not a name on any of our rosters. The former employee that they spoke to was very disappointing because I am not sure where he got his information from. I was very perplexed that he didn’t feel like the policies applied to him.”
“It is impossible for anybody to control or have all of their employees do everything right 100 percent of the time,” says Searles. “We can just direct them and support the authorities and that’s all that we can do.”
Searles said that if an investigation showed any fraud they would immediately terminate the offending employee and cooperate with the proper authorities.
“We actually reward our technicians for finding fraud because we don’t want anything to do with it,” says Searles. “Our last line of defense to ensure our integrity is the technician. They are told when they get there if there is no damage to not put the windshield in, notify the dispatch and take pictures.”
DNS Auto Glass uses computer software and Searles confirmed that technicians take photos that are uploaded and available for viewing.
“We are inspected regularly. We have yet to have one formal complaint to us from any insurance company as it relates to fraud,” says Searles. “We don’t want to do it wrong. If someone is committing fraud then we want to know about it.”
The Kentucky Department of Insurance is currently considering the television station’s report.
DNS Auto Glass has nine locations throughout Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, New York and Connecticut.
Article source: http://www.glassbytes.com/newsDNS20120502.html
Is It Still Spying If You Approved It?
Online privacy is a hot issue. People expect to be able to surf the Web and use the Internet without compromising their privacy in the process, but the sites and services people use may be monitoring their online behavior. This may seem like an infringement of privacy to some, however, what they don’t realize is that they agreed to be watched.
The average Internet user visits more than 2,500 websites and online services per month. Virtually every one of them has a privacy policy of some sort. You might have to dig (a lot) to actually find it, but it’s there somewhere. By visiting the site or using the service you’re tacitly agreeing to the terms of the privacy policy whether you read it or not.
How many privacy policies have you read from beginning to end? Probably zero. One source reports that legal and tech researchers estimate it would take an entire month to read all of the privacy policies for the sites an average person visits in a year. Are you willing to invest that kind of time? Of course not.
Nobody is really–unless they’re a legal or tech researcher getting paid to do so–and the sites and services know that up front. They know that they can bury shady activity and surreptitious monitoring of online activity into the privacy policy because nobody is going to read it, and the use of the site or service signals your acceptance of the policy and gives silent consent for them to engage in spying on you.
In many cases, the information gathered isn’t even used by the site itself. It is collected as a side business and sold to third-party data brokers who then correlate and analyze the data to paint demographic pictures that can be marketed to advertisers, health insurers, and other entities.
Internet service providers, search engines, email services, and other online services may all be monitoring your online behavior. They know where you connect from, the type of device or operating system you use, whom you communicate with, the information you seek online, and the websites you visit. It’s OK that they collect such data, though; because you agreed to it when you accepted the privacy policy you didn’t read.
What should you do? Or–better yet–what can you do? Technically, you should read the privacy policies so you know what you’re getting into. That’s time consuming, and highly impractical, though.
Instead, try to limit your online activity to sites and services you trust. Those sites and services are most likely monitoring your activity to some extent as well, but a reputable website will use the information only for its own purposes to improve the experience for you as opposed to selling it to the highest bidder (or all of the bidders).
If you’d like to shield your online activity from spying, you can use the private browsing mode of your Web browser. All of the major browsers have an optional mode that prevents tracking cookies and wipes the browser history to conceal your online tracks.
Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/255037/is_it_still_spying_if_you_approved_it.html
Videotron Technicians Caught on Hidden Camera
Canada’s Videotron is launching a new advertising campaign focusing on one of its main differentiators: superior customer service. The unwitting stars of the commercials are surreptitiously filmed Videotron technicians. The humorous campaign underscores Videotron’s excellent service and its employees’ determination to provide the best possible customer experience. It will run in English and French versions.
Twenty-one technicians were unknowingly put to the test by fake customers, with comical results. The scenes highlight the things that set Videotron apart: same-day installation, evening installation, installation of all services in one visit, service demos by the technician, and 30-day money-back guarantee.
What the commercials show, first and foremost, is the extent to which Videotron employees are genuinely dedicated to pleasing the customer. “Our conscientious technicians are ambassadors for Videotron and its values,” said Manon Brouillette, President, Consumer Market. “We are very proud of them. They have achieved an impressive 96% customer satisfaction rate1 and this campaign is a tip of the hat to their great work.”
The Technician Trap
With moving season approaching, Videotron has set up the Technician Trap website (technicienspieges.com) to make life easier for customers. Visitors to the site will be able to view the new commercials, as well as long versions, “making of” videos and cutting-floor footage, which will be posted on the site in the course of the campaign. They will also find practical advice and an array of useful tools, such as online address change and Videotron Smart Find, the easy way to search for information about merchants in their new neighbourhood.
In all, Videotron will air more than three television commercials in French and two in English. The campaign follows up on last year’s prank calls commercials, featuring customer service advisors, technical support advisors and comedians Sugar Sammy and André-Philippe Gagnon, which won the 2012 Grand Prix Créa for its originality.
Videotron (www.videotron.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., is an integrated communications company engaged in cable television, interactive multimedia development, and Internet access, cable telephone and mobile telephone services. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its interactive Digital TV service and its broadband network, which supports high-speed cable Internet access, analog and digital cable television, and other services. As of December 31, 2011, Videotron was serving 1,861,500 cable television customers, including 1,400,800 subscribers to its digital service. Videotron is also the Québec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 1,332,500 subscribers to its cable service as of December 31, 2011. As of the same date, Videotron had 290,600 subscriber connections to its mobile telephone service and was providing cable telephone service to 1,205,300 Québec households and organizations. For the seventh consecutive year, Videotron was named Québec’s most respected telecommunications company by Les Affaires magazine, based on a Léger Marketing survey.
Article source: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/videotron-technicians-caught-on-hidden-camera-tsx-qbr.a-1655002.htm