Category: New Zealand

In 10 Years Time…

Posted on by Matt Taylor Leave a comment

History

on marriage equality
Natasha Leggero: If you say you are against this in 10 years time you’re going to look like the people who didn’t want black people to use their drinking fountains. You’re going to look so stupid.

Steven Price sez:

The wrong side of history

Shane Ardern (N); Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi (N); David Bennett (N); Chester Borrows (N); Simon Bridges (N); Bill English (N); Christopher Finlayson (N); Nathan Guy (N); John Hayes (N); Phil Heatley (N); Brendan Horan (NZF); Colin King (N); Melissa Lee (N); Asenati Lole-Taylor (NZF); Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga (N); Tim Macindoe (N); Tracey Martin (NZF); Todd McClay (N); Mark Mitchell (N); Alfred Ngaro (N); Damien O’Connor (L); Simon O’Connor (N); Denis O’Rourke (NZF); Winston Peters (NZF); Richard Prosser (NZF); Ross Robertson (L); Eric Roy (N); Tony Ryall (N); Mike Sabin (N); Katrina Shanks (N); Su’a William Sio (L); Nick Smith (N); Barbara Stewart (NZF); Lindsay Tisch (N); Anne Tolley (N); Louise Upston (N); Andrew Williams (NZF); Michael Woodhouse (N); Jian Yang (N); Jonathan Young (N)

How much contact did Anne Tolley have with students when she was the Minister of Education?

Image credit: Phil Manker

Posted in Law, New Zealand

“WHY DO I HAVE TO TAKE MY HAT OFF?”

Posted on by Matt Taylor 5 Comments

“In Massachusetts many banks agreed that their customers must remove their hats and sunglasses once they crossed a bank’s threshold. Of these branches, only 3% were robbed.” – The Economist

Perhaps the bank version of the “please turn off your digital devices” policy on planes is the no hats (or hoodies, or helmets, or sunglasses) policy.

Mr Delancaster-Swinbank-Slack is annoyed that the staff at his local ANZ branch continually ask him to remove his hat when he visits.

The sign at the door clearly indicates the policy, but Mr Delancaster-Swinbank-Slack is 83 and is no “young thug”, so he chooses to ignore it.

He puts ANZ staff into a difficult position because they can’t apply the policy discriminately to just the people they think look a bit dodge.

He notes that staff “usually relented because of his age and non-menacing appearance”. He puts the other staff working in the branch into an even more difficult position. Say someone else comes into the branch. Maybe they look dodgy, maybe they don’t. They’re also wearing a hat.

How do you explain to them that you’d like them to remove their hat when a couple of metres away Anthony is over there rocking his sports hat? Do you choose to ask the person who just walked in, potentially really offending one of your customers with the insinuation that they look suspect? Or do you not ask, knowing that the large majority of bank robbers cover their face/head in some way?

 This post represents my views, not my employer’s.

Posted in New Zealand, Technology, Worldwide

Secret SIS Search Warrants and Telco Data Retention

Posted on by Matt Taylor Leave a comment

This phone is tapped

The SIS and police confiscated digital devices belonging to Former Fijian cabinet minister Rajesh Singh last week “in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Fiji’s leader Voreqe Bainimarama”.

A woman from the SIS turned up with three plain clothed police officers and said she had a search warrant. But she couldn’t show Rajesh it or give him a copy because it was classified. Because you know, wanting to know why people are raiding your house is a completely unreasonable request.

Idiot/Savant asks why, if the alleged plot was actually reasonable, was Rajesh or someone else not arrested. @civillibertynz points out that this secret warrant wouldn’t even need to be presented in court later on.

The laptop and phone were returned later in the day, assumedly after being copied. I wonder if the SIS are allowed to install spyware?

Data retention by NZ telecom providers

I also wonder whether they needed physical access to the phone for what they were looking for. Telecom companies here are very vague about how long they keep user data for. It doesn’t seem like customer facing staff (and thus customers) are generally privy to the period of time information is actually kept.

Telecom says text message content is stored for two to three months. Vodafone says up to six months. 2degrees said six months, but that the technical team could access archives further back than that (a detail I wonder if others didn’t mention).

I requested my data from 2Degrees and they sent me every text message I had sent involving 2Degrees (18+ months worth), including nine months of text messages I had sent to 2degrees customers when I was on another network.

I wonder whether in practice this Telecommunications Information Privacy Code rule is being followed:

“A telecommunications agency that holds telecommunications information must not keep that information for longer than is required for the purposes for which the  information may lawfully be used.”

I understand that there’s no legal requirement for telcos to keep a hold of this data at all (section 40).

Whose interests are being served by keeping information for such an unnecessary amount of time, especially when customers have no idea it’s happening?

And whose interests are being served when a secret search warrant is served on an ex-foreign cabinet minister in relation to a dubious overseas assassination plot?

Image credit: tenaciousme

Posted in Deep Dive, Law, New Zealand, Technology

Where Is The CCTV Footage From The Dotcom Mansion Raid?

Posted on by Matt Taylor 1 Comment

CCTV camera

Ars Technica sez:

“Since January, the Dotcom legal team has asked for the footage, but police refused, until finally the agency agreed that an IT expert for DotCom could come and collect a copy of the footage. When the IT expert arrived at the police station, he found the server completely disassembled, and authorities said they could not reassemble it or give him any footage. Now, no one outside the police agency is sure the footage still exists.”

Here’s what the Police said to me on 13 February:

“Police do not have any equipment which may hold this security footage. This equipment is held by the Official Assignee on behalf of the Crown, not Police.”

And here’s what the Insolvency & Trustee Service said on 17 February:

“The Official Assignee has no knowledge of any security camera footage.”

So what exactly does this footage show that the police and friends don’t want getting out?

Image credit: Charbel Akhras

Posted in Law, New Zealand, Technology, Worldwide

Three Strikes Law Shifted File Sharing From Torrents To Tunnels

Posted on by Matt Taylor Leave a comment

Cables

Shifting file sharing

A survey commissioned by the MPAA and friends last year stated that seven out of 10 people surveyed said that they would stop illegally sharing files after they received one notice from a copyright holder under the three strikes scheme.

Perhaps they should have also asked how many people would just change how they download files illegally?

The WAND Network Research Group at The University of Waikato has been measuring how traffic flows through a New Zealand ISP. They can split traffic into types with a pretty high degree of accuracy without having to “look inside” too much. Donald Clark compares it to looking at the postmark of a package and giving it a squeeze and being able to tell, in general terms, what’s inside, without having to open it.

Here’s a graph (ht Tech Liberty/1through8) showing the change in traffic volume in September 2011 and January 2012 by type relative to January 2011. In January 2011 the Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Act (the three strikes Skynet law) wasn’t in force. On September 1 2011 copyright holders could start sending notices to IPAPs, and around that time there was a strong media interest in the law. January 2012 is a few months later.

The resulting data is a valuable insight into how residential DSL customers at this particular ISP reacted to the new law.

WAND Three Strikes ISP data

More graphical goodness can be found in the slides from a NZNOG presentation here.

There was about a 75% decrease in BitTorrent traffic straight after the law was introduced, largely sustained into 2012, with huge increases in remote and tunneling traffic. The law isn’t stopping file sharing, just moving it underground, using VPNs, seedboxes and sites like now closed Megaupload.

There was also a big decrease in newgroup traffic, even though it doesn’t appear to be targeted by the new law.

Here’s what the project leader, Shane Alcock said:

“P2P, P2P structure, Unknown, Newsgroups and Encrypted [not all shown in the graph above] have all decreased massively from their January 2011 levels. Interestingly, each of these categories can be tied to the illegal downloading activities targeted by the CAA [Copyright Amendment Act]. P2P and P2P structure are obviously related, Newsgroups are a common source of torrent files and the Unknown and Encrypted categories were strongly suspected of containing a significant quantity of encrypted P2P traffic.

Even more interestingly, Remote, Tunneling and Files experienced similarly large growths in the amount of traffic downloaded by DSL users. This is probably indicative of people changing their approach to downloading copyrighted material. Instead of participating in file sharing on their home machines, it has become more common for people to use machines based in other countries and ship the file back home via another protocol. This might be via SSH, VPN or FTP, for example, which are all covered by the growing categories.

Similar trends are observed when looking at traffic transmitted by the DSL users. Categories associated with P2P file sharing have seen much less traffic compared with January 2011, whereas Tunneling, Remote and Files have soared.

It should be noted that although Tunneling has grown significantly, the overall amount of Tunneling traffic is still much less than the total amount of P2P traffic. But the sudden changes in application protocol usage are still very noteworthy and suggest that the CAA has had a major impact on people’s Internet usage.”

Image credit: technoloic

Posted in Law, New Zealand, Technology

OIA Adventures: School Formals, Same-Sex Dates, And After Parties – The Meat

Posted on by Matt Taylor 22 Comments

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

School ball

Last year I sent an Official Information Act request to all the state and integrated secondary schools in New Zealand that have year 12/13 students with a couple of questions about their school balls/formals. Many schools didn’t reply at all, and the Office of the Ombudsman is involved with those requests. Many schools didn’t have much experience with the OIA. And there’s a few things I could have done better.

Here’s what I said:

If you hold a school ball or formal could you please answer the following questions? Do you have a policy on same-sex dates? If so, could you please email me a copy of that policy?

In the past, has the school banned same-sex dates from attending the school ball or formal? If so, could you please provide details?

Do you have a policy on parties before/after the school ball or formal? If so, could you please email me a copy of that policy? [note that if schools interpreted this as a written policy, many will have responded with no policy when they do indeed have common practices and procedures]

And here’s the meat of the replies.

Same-sex dates

Darfield High is perhaps one of the more honest schools, and might not deserve to be in the same category as the other schools listed below. They admit that in the past same-sex partners weren’t permitted at their balls. This would have happened at other schools too.

Greymouth High School elect a king and queen. This probably happens at other schools too. Is it an inclusive practice?

‘Case by case basis’ is mentioned a lot in these replies. This doesn’t apply to opposite-sex dates that want to attend to the ball. Is it fair to subject same-sex dates to an additional process, just because of their sex?

Rejecting friends and mates of the same-sex as partners also came up. Are friends and mates of the opposite sex declined as dates? Is having to be gay, or having to prove that you’re gay, by signing something, or whatever, to take a same-sex date to a ball/formal acceptable?

Inviting sports teams to the formal/ball also came up as an excuse to treat same-sex couples differently. I wonder if the members of a mixed sports team attending the formal/ball would, as one schools says, “make a mockery out of the occasion”. I wonder how many times a same-sex sports team has attended the event at these schools. If it has happened, I wonder if they are being slightly over-dramatic regarding the negative effect it caused.

Christchurch Adventist School is the only school, out of those that actually replied, that flat-out says same-sex dates wouldn’t be permitted.

Campion College says they “generally [do not permit same-sex dates] due to a previous issue with vandalism”. I wonder if effectively banning same-sex dates is the best solution for this situation. I wonder how vandalism of a significant nature can occur during a supervised event.

Here’s what St Patrick’s College Wellington (the one that was in the news last year) said:

“Do you have a policy on same-sex dates?
No we do not.

Has the school banned same-sex dates in the past?
No as this has never arisen before.

Do you have a policy on parties before/after the school ball or formal?  No we do not.”

—

Wellington Girls College

  • “No we don’t have a policy on same sex dates. If girls are in a same sex relationship they can bring their partner but we deal with this on a case by case basis. No we haven’t banned a same sex partner – we have said no to a friend from another school who just wants to come along to go to the ball though.”
  • “No we don’t have a policy on parties before/after ball. We simply say to parents and girls we don’t support after ball parties and if we hear of them we tell the Police. Pre ball parties  – we ask parents to be vigilant.”

Sancta Maria College

  • “We do not have a policy on same sex dates although outside ‘partners’ cannot be “mates” of the same sex” “The students understand that all we are trying to avoid is a group of boys for example arranging to bring their Rugby Club team to the Ball by having them as ‘partners’. This is not the purpose of the Ball.”
  • “We do not have a policy but the school strongly discourages pre-ball and post-ball parties where alcohol is served.”

Darfield High School

  • No policy, same-sex dates not recently banned: “I have been at the school for 2 and a half years. I have been told that some years prior to this there was some issue with same sex dates.”
  • No policy on functions

St Thomas of Canterbury College

  • “Our students seem to have a wide circle of female friends  and there has been no demand or requests from our students beyond that to date. If a student wanted to bring a same sex relationship partner we would be happy to accommodate that on a case by case basis.” No response to my request to elaborate.
  • “Our school ball is a community model ie the majority of parents and staff attend so the function is 50% student 50% adult. In terms of pre ball and post ball functions we work together with our students and discuss the pros and cons of these and inherent problems as well as safe measures if hosting in the home. As our function starts quite early at 6.30pm, involves a dinner and ball and finishes at 1am, our students have chosen in recent years not to have formally arranged after parties at booked venues.”

Christchurch Adventist School

  • As a Christian Adventist school (“Special Character – and biblical same-sex dating is not accepted as part of the faith community”). Also as we have students from Years 0-13 and hence we don’t encourage any relationships of any kind. We are a small area school so monitoring and dealing with the issues are manageable.
  • No policy on functions

Campion College

  • “The College does not have a written policy on same sex partners but generally does not permit it due to a previous issue with vandalism created when a group of students brought their ‘mates’ from another school. We reserve the right to decline any partners from outside the College attending.” Me: “So that’s more to stop troublemakers who are coming as friends, not dates?” “That’s correct.”
  • Ball finishes at 1am to try to discourage after parties

Kavanagh College

  • No policy – “I would however draw the line at say, for example, half the 1st XI soccer boys (or netball girls or whomever) want to take the other half just to make a mockery out of the occasion.”
  • “Like most schools we would prefer they did not occur. The main issue for the Board and management of the college is safety. In the past we have written/communicated to parents and students giving them firm advice and guidelines about safety and the legal ramifications of under-age drinking, or running large scale pre or post events etc.  To date we have been fortunate that any events of this type, if they have occurred, have been well organised and managed by a wide group of parents.”

St Bede’s College

  • “I wouldn’t have a problem with it. However, it would have to be a senior management decision if the issue came up. As it hasn’t to date no policy has been made.”
  • No policy on functions

Tauranga Boys’ College

  • “We do not have a specific policy on same sex dates attending but treat each case as an individual situation. Last year we had two males from the college attend the ball together. I’m unaware of their sexual preferences as it wasn’t an issue in the decision being made.” “If the situation arises we will talk it through with those involved and then make a decision.”
  • “We discourage pre-balls and after-balls and reserve the right to cancel the ball if we are are aware of a gathering being planned involving significant numbers. We appeal to our parents to use their judgement and manage the situation sensibly. I have refered to this in my latest newsletter which will be available on our website in a couple of days. We start the ball at 6.30 with a formal meal for yr 13 students only and try to make the ball itself the main event of the evening for our students.”

School attitudes towards balls/formals

  • Martin Isberg from Wainuiomata High School points out that in every letter about their formal/ball they have sent out over the past few years, “press coverage after a couple of incidents in Auckland” has been included.
  • Breath testing and bag searching came up a bit, which is concerning from a civil rights standpoint.
  • In similar Big Brother fashion, Craighead Diocesan School requests a list of all the students attending before ball events.
  • Other schools mentioned making students not want to leave the event, or making it finish late so students wouldn’t have after parties.
  • Some schools have dinners and other events instead of balls/formals.
  • Thames High School notes that parents in conjunction with a student committee and community health providers have previously organised a controlled after ball with limits on alcohol, security, food, non-alcoholic drinks and transport being provided and attendance limited. But now it’s frowned upon by the police, and I assume the students run their own, less well supervised after parties.

General replies, with policies or comments

Albany Senior High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “If our Principal hears anything about an after ball party then the ball will be cancelled”

Alfriston College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “If your child does intend to attend any Pre-Ball function we ask that you ensure that no alcohol is consumed. The Police have made it quite clear that they will close down any organised After-Ball event.”
  • Attached – pdf

Aparima College

  • No policy on same-sex dates, “all applications for [outside] dates to our ball are treated equally”, application to bring date from outside school involves references from their school or employer/other non-related reputable adult
  • No involvement with functions, allows SADD (students against drunk driving) representatives to liaise with senior students to discuss safe options, responsible parents organize after ball (including buses, supervision and bouncers), local police make an appearance, never had any problems

Aranui High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “We take every step to ensure that intoxicated students are removed by security guards before entry to the venue of the formal.”

Aurora College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy on functions – small school, no problems in past with after functions

Awatapu College

  • No written policy on same-sex dates,  “students are free to bring a partner of their choice”
  • No written policy on functions, reserves the right to reject partners based on behavioral history. “Students under the influence of drugs or alcohol will not be admitted to the ball and parents will be contacted to come and collect them.  We have tight security and supervision, which includes a search prior to entry, in addition to the filter of the principal’s reception line.” “If we hear of any large scale organised parties, we inform the police.”

Bayfield High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy on functions, “but we do have policies around alcohol and the school. You have not requested those.” Not encouraged, not banned, schools name cannot be used. Must arrive at formal sober. Before ball parties have never been an issue.

Cashmere High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “We ask for information about them but send a letter to all parents explaining that we are not involved in these in any way.”

Central Hawkes Bay College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Urge students to be sensible, generally have good co-operation from students and wider community

Coastal Taranaki School

  • No policy on same-sex couples
  • “Parties (if involving [drugs and alcohol]) are not sanctioned by the Board”

Craighead Diocesan School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Letter to students/parents ask them to let the school know if they’re planning on holding a before formal event. Asks for list of students attending. Recommends limits on alcohol. Parents and students sign form stating that there will be no after formal functions.
  • Attached – copied from email – pdf

Cullinane College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “If we become aware of any mass gatherings we contact the Police”

Edgewater College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “They all know that if they turn up intoxicated they will be refused entry. We employ security to assist and bags are checked prior to entry. If alcohol was found they would be sent home. Years ago students did run an organised after ball that went off without problems. The following year it fell through and didn’t happen and since that time there has never been an organised after ball in the sense of organised venue, alcohol via the entry ticket, security guards organised or parent organised.”

Epsom Girls’ Grammar School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Police talk to students about legal issues around pre and after ball parties. Forward information to families from the police and council regarding these events.

Fairfield College

  • No policies
  • Attached – exported to pdf from .doc

Freyberg High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “An arranged after ball function would put the ball at risk of being cancelled”

Greymouth High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “Can breath test on entry”
  • Attached – exported to pdf from .doc

Hamilton Boys’ High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “The School follows a practice of discussing each year with senior students whether or not a school ball will be held and, if so, what arrangements or conditions will apply, including such topics as who will be invited and any associated events”

Hamilton Girls’ High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Can breath test on entry

Hurunui College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “We often have breath testing before entry. We are not obliged to hold a ball and the health and safety of our students is paramount.  We do not want to have students in car smashjes or suffereing alcohol poisoning after a school organised event.”

Hutt Valley High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • All students breath tested and bags checked, no level of alcohol is permitted, parents asked not to hold pre-ball events
  • Require 85% attendance to attend the ball, students may not leave until 30 minutes before the ball ends

John Paul II High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • May be breath tested
  • Attached – pdf, attached – exported to pdf from .doc

Kamo High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates, “the rules of justice and equity apply to everyone”
  • No policy on functions, no events sanctioned by school

Kelston Girls’ College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy on functions
  • Expectations covered by letter sent to parents

Lincoln High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy on functions
  • One approved alcohol-free after ball is organized by youth workers

Macleans College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • We have made a ruling that if there is a post-ball party planned the ball will be cancelled.

Mana College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • EXpect students to arrive and leave sober

Maniototo Area School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Any after party is not a school function.

Manurewa High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Search students on entry to ball venue “as required by the venue” and have breath testing there to be used if necessary. School Police Constable attends and the Police are notified of the event

Matamata College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Tickets not allowed to be sold at school, reserve the right to breath test at the ball

Middleton Grange School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Letter to parents/students suggests alcohol not be available at post-formal functions, along with other recommendations around supervision. – Pupils are not to be involved in pre-functions where alcohol is available. The school requests that parents provide vigilant oversight in this important matter and be consistent with this policy. Pupils will not be permitted entry if they do not abide by this request.
  • Attached – exported to pdf from .doc

Nelson College For Girls

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • We do however ask that pre ball parties are alcohol free.  This year we intend to breath test as students arrive. We expect that there will not be any after parties.  The school does not associate itself with any such event and would contemplate cancelling the formal if any were organised.

New Plymouth Girls’ High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “Small family gatherings in private homes with family and friends are permitted. Large pre-after ball events are not permitted. Our stance mirrors that of the police that is outlined in the letter they sent to schools. Gatherings planned in secret, sale of tickets, provision of alcohol to minors, buses to and from venues are deemed to be illegal gatherings.The police will be notified if any events of this nature come to our notice. We test any attendee at the ball that we suspect to be under the influence.”

Newlands College

  • No policy on same-sex dates, “queer students obviously have the same rights as any other students”. “We have peviously had students bring same-sex partners to the ball without any issue being made.”
  • No policy on functions

Opotiki College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Breath test all ball goers at door so there can be no drinking at pre-balls. Post-ball gatherings are registered with local police so they can keep an eye on.

Otaki College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy on functions
  • Attached – exported to pdf from .doc

Otumoetai College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • All students breath tested on entry, if a student fails the test they can get picked up by their parents or wait in a secure area and get retested after an hour, after a second failure parents are contacted and disciplinary action occurs the next school day, Police are called if it is an outside partner

Papatoetoe High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “We provide local authorities with any information they request with regard to the timing of our ball, etc.”

Piopio College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “The Ball is being held on the assurance of the Student Council that no ‘after-ball’ function will take place.”

Queens High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy on functions
  • Attached – exported to pdf from .doc

Raglan Area School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “Students have not these last two years organised formal parties either before or after and I have a request to extend the hours of the ball as they are not planning any other event this year either”

Rangiora High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Know they take place, give guidelines to parents, students not admitted entry if they are “tanked up”

Rangitoto College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • After balls effectively banned. “The College is organising the ball on condition that it is not followed by any large scale ‘After Ball’ function.  Should the College be informed of such an event then the Ball will be cancelled. If the event occurs subsequent to the Ball then school management would have to consider very carefully whether they would be prepared to run any school balls in the future.
  • Any student who is involved in the organisation of such an large scale after ball function will be considered by the school management to have undertaken an act of Gross Misconduct as defined by Section 14 (1) (a) of the Education Act and will have to face a Board disciplinary hearing.
  • We are happy with the idea of small functions after the Ball in private homes where parents take responsibility for supervising the safety of students.  If you are planning to have a group to your house after the Ball and would like to check whether it fits our criteria, please don’t hesitate to ring”

Rathkeale College

  • Runs ball with St Matthew’s Collegiate (Masterton)
  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy on functions
  • “While some student leavers’ may gather pre-ball, this is not an issue as from about 4.00pm students are gathered at our schools for photographs etc and the ball commences at 6.00pm. After the ball most students and their parents stay in accommodation provided at the venue.  There is overwhelming parental control at the ball and after the ball.  It is a function that is not officially a school function.  It is organised by parents for their Year 13 sons and daughters who have actually left school, but the two principals have the say on how it managed.  The arrangement works very well for our schools.”

Reefton Area School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • We actively discourage pre-ball post-ball parties and promote that position widely in the community. It doesn’t stop it happening mainly because parents arrange them.

Reporoa College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy – “we do however have a practice of breathalysing upon entry to the ball”
  • Attached – pdf

Sacred Heart Girls’ College (N Plymouth)

  • No policy – “Cannot comment on past as i haven’t been here long enough”
  • “I issue a statement in a letter to ball going students that we will not tolerate after ball parties. If I hear of one I reserve the right to cancel the ball.”

Selwyn College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy – supports parents concern re pre/post ball functions, reminds them that serving liquor to minors at any function would breach licensing arrangements and that functions should be supervised and have food available; don’t condone after ball functions either

Shirley Boys’ High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Visually check for influence of alcohol/drugs, no authority to ban after ball parties

Southland Boys’ High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • The students, parents and police hold an after ball function.  This is not a school event as such, but is managed by parents and the police with the support and co-operation of the school.  It is the only after ball event that is sanctioned by the school.  As part of the work we do with police and health workers, after ball activities and acceptable behaviours are negotiated with the students.  We have not had any issues with students, parents, police with regard to this

St Hildas Collegiate

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “SADD Committee organise a post formal function – it is not a school event and is run by SADD representatives and parents.  This event has been very successful and extremely well supervised.”

St John’s College (Hastings)

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “We do not allow after ball parties. Our statement to parents is that if we find out a large after ball party is being organised we will cancel the ball.”

St Mary’s College (Ponsonby)

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “We write in the letter to parents and students that the school does not approve of any pre-ball and after-ball parties.  Parents and students are required to sign the return slip in the letter to say they understand these are the conditions for the students to attend the ball.”

St Peter’s College (Palmerston North)

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Senior charity evening instead of ball – “pre and after-functions are NOT acceptable”
  • Attached – exported to pdf from .doc

Taita College

  • No policy on same-sex dates – in a typical year all date applications are approved
  • No policy on functions – no involvement
  • “Given the recent event we are in the process of preparing information for a policy which will be in place for any ball held from 2012.”

Takapuna Grammar School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • Actively discourage the holding of after-balls

Tauranga Girls’ College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “We have a contract signed by those attending that they will obey the TGC code of conduct while at the ball and that they will not organise or attend post ball events of the paid tickets / alcohol supplied / secret venue type.”

Tawa College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “A breathalyser will be present and students may be randomly tested to check that the specified boundaries with regard to alcohol have been respected.” “The Formal is the main event of the evening. We do not want to hear of large parties occurring either before the Formal, or after the Formal is over. Such parties, in our experience, bring trouble of one sort or another, reflect very badly on the school, and can cause considerable grief to parents if they get out of hand.”
  • Attached – exported to pdf from .doc

Te Awamutu College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy on functions
  • Attached – pdf

Thames High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “We have told students of our intention to breath-test all students, with any students who return a positive test being denied entry to the Ball. We also intend to randomly test students during the course of the evening to guard against students ‘smuggling’ alcohol into the function. – there has been a Safe After-Ball Party. This has been organised by a student committee supported by parents and community health providers. This function was organised following Alcoholic Liquor Advisory Council (ALAC) guidelines, and included strict limits on the type and quantity of alcohol that students could take into the function, a high level of security being provided, entry restricted to students who had attended the Ball, food and non-alcoholic drinks being provided, and transport provided to and from the venue (so that no students were driving). Over the past two years the context for such functions has changed. Police no longer support this concept, particularly because it is now considered to breach the law in relation to students under the legal age being supplied with alcohol, and a place to consume alcohol.”
  • Attached – exported to pdf from .doc

Waiheke High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy on functions. “Each year the local police are present at the start of the Ball and also pop in during the event.”

Wainuiomata High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “If we become aware of any large-scale organised function on the night, we will pass that information on to the Police.”

Waitaki Girls’ High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy on functions. “I am aware that there is an after formal function which parents and the police organise completely independent of this school.”

Wanganui Girls’ College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “Our ball is run as a private event off school site by senior students and their parents and what they choose to do before or after the ball we consider their business. We advise parents and students that they should be cautious of arranging such events, but in the end, it is their business.”

Wellington East Girls’ College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “Students often attend pre ball functions at the homes of parents. The functions are alcohol  free events.”

Western Springs College

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • “If we receive information about the organisation of an after-ball event involving the illegal supply of alcohol, we will pass this on to the NZ Police. Students have been advised not to organise large scale pre- or after-ball events and not to sell tickets for such events which offer the bearer the illegal supply of alcohol.”

Westlake Girls’ High School

  • No policy on same-sex dates
  • No policy – “although we would be very happy if they did not occur”

Replied, with no policies on same-sex dates or functions

  • Akaroa Area School
  • Aotea College
  • Aquinas College
  • Ashburton College
  • Auckland Grammar
  • Avonside Girls’ High School
  • Blue Mountain College
  • Botany Downs Secondary College
  • Cambridge High School
  • Cheviot Area School
  • Christchurch Boys’ High School
  • Columba College
  • Coromandel Area School
  • Cromwell College
  • Dannevirke High School
  • East Otago High School
  • Edgecumbe College
  • Garin College
  • Glendowie College
  • Glenfield College
  • Gore High School
  • Hagley Community College
  • Hamilton’s Fraser High School
  • Hato Petera College
  • Hawera High School
  • Hillmorton High School
  • Inglewood High School
  • James Hargest College
  • John McGlashan College
  • John Paul College
  • Kaikohe Christian School
  • Kaikorai Valley College
  • Kaitaia Abundant Life School
  • Kapiti College
  • Kelston Boys’ High School
  • Kingsway School
  • Lindisfarne College
  • Liston College
  • Logan Park High School
  • Long Bay College
  • Lynfield College
  • Manawatu College
  • Mangere College
  • Massey High School
  • McAuley High School
  • Mercury Bay Area School
  • Michael Park School
  • Mt Maunganui College
  • Mt Roskill Grammar
  • Naenae College
  • Nayland College
  • Nelson College
  • Nga Tawa Diocesan School
  • Northland College
  • One Tree Hill College
  • Onehunga High School
  • Onslow College
  • Opononi Area School
  • Orewa College
  • Otahuhu College
  • Otamatea High School
  • Otorohanga College
  • Pakuranga College
  • Palmerston North Boys’ High School
  • Palmerston North Girls’ High School
  • Papakura High School
  • Paraparaumu College
  • Putaruru College
  • Queen Elizabeth College
  • Riccarton High School
  • Rodney College
  • Rongotai College
  • Rotorua Boys’ High School
  • Rotorua Lakes High School
  • Roxburgh Area School
  • Rutherford College
  • Sacred Heart Girls’ College (Ham)
  • South Westland Area School
  • St John’s College (Hillcrest)
  • St Mary’s College (Wellington)
  • St Oran’s College
  • St Patrick’s College (Kilbirnie)
  • Stratford High School
  • Taieri College
  • Taihape Area School
  • Tamatea High School
  • Tararua College
  • Tauraroa Area School
  • Te Kuiti High School
  • Te Kura Maori o Porirua
  • Te Kura Taumata o Panguru
  • Te Puke High School
  • Te Wharekura o Arowhenua
  • TKKM o Te Koutu
  • Tokoroa High School
  • Tongariro School
  • Upper Hutt College
  • Waiopehu College
  • Wairoa College
  • Waitara High School
  • Wanganui City College
  • Wanganui High School
  • Wellington High School & Com Ed Centre
  • Wesley College
  • Westland High School
  • Whangaparaoa College
  • Woodford House

Replied, don’t have a ball/formal

  • Christian Renewal School
  • Collingwood Area School
  • Excellere College
  • Francis Douglas Memorial College
  • Hastings Christian School
  • Hauraki Plains College
  • Hillview Christian School
  • Hukarere College
  • Karamea Area School
  • Kokohuia School
  • Lake Taupo Christian School
  • Lawrence Area School
  • Longburn Adventist College – “ceased holding formals”
  • Mana Tamariki
  • Manaia School (Thames)
  • Mangakahia Area School
  • Marist College
  • Murchison Area School
  • Patea Area School
  • Ponatahi Christian School
  • Rai Valley Area School
  • St Joseph’s Maori Girls’ College
  • Tai Wananga
  • Taikura Rudolf Steiner School
  • Te Aute College
  • Te Karaka Area School
  • Te Kura Mana Maori o Whangaparaoa
  • Te Waha O Rerekohu Area School
  • Te Wharekura o Manurewa
  • Te Wharekura o Te Kaokaoroa o Patetere
  • TKKM o Hoani Waititi
  • TKKM o Kaikohe
  • TKKM o Nga Mokopuna
  • TKKM o Ngati Kahungunu Ki Heretaunga
  • TKKM o Ruamata
  • TKKM o Tamaki Nui A Rua
  • TKKM o Te Kura Kokiri
  • TKKM o Te Raki Paewhenua
  • TKKM o Te Whanau Tahi
  • TKKM o Tupoho
  • TKKM o Wairarapa
  • TKKM o Waitaha
  • Totara College of Accelerated Learning
  • Trident High School
  • Twizel Area School
  • Waimea College
  • Wellington College
  • Whangaroa College
  • Zayed College for Girls

Image credit: stu_spivack

Posted in Law, New Zealand

How To Counterfeit Money

Posted on by Matt Taylor Leave a comment

PhotoShop banknote block

Not with Photoshop (and apparently Paint Shop Pro), or your printer, anyway.

The counterfeit deterrence system

If you try to open an image of specific currencies (and I assume at a specific resolution or higher) in Photoshop, you’ll receive the same error message as above. It’s interesting to note that New Zealand’s money isn’t blocked from being opened. Probably because we’re too busy trying to stop our passports from being counterfeited.

You can test it out using images from Banknotes.com. This one and this one throw up the error for me.

Here is Adobe’s information page on their ‘Counterfeit deterrence system’. What Photoshop is looking for is apparently a Digimarc digital watermark, different from the EURion constellation printers, or at least colour photocopiers look out for.

How to get around it

So what if your counterfeiting plans were going well so far, and now you’re at a standstill because of Adobe? You can use Gimp. It opens banknotes without trouble. So do old versions of Photoshop. And Microsoft Paint.

Why did Adobe think it was a good idea to add this? Counterfeiters will already know that they can use an older version of Photoshop, or use other software to get around this additional ‘feature’ and will be doing that.

All Adobe is doing is pissing off people who are trying to use Photoshop for a legitimate reason.

The Rules For Use website the dialog box directs users to even lists situations where you can reproduce banknotes legally (e.g. at a certain size), but Photoshop blocks opening banknotes full stop.

Why is it included?

Adobe will have had to spend time and money on including this system, with no returns in the form of additional sales. I assume they were pressured to include it, or even paid to include it by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group.

Perhaps more concerning is that Adobe apparently has no idea what they have actually included in their software on behalf of the CBCDG:

“The inner workings of the counterfeit deterrence system are so secret that not even Adobe is privy to them. The Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group provides the software as a black box without revealing its precise inner workings, Connor said.”

Secrecy

If you’ve bought Photoshop, were you aware of this system at the time of sale? You bought the software to open and edit images, but there are limitations you wouldn’t have been told about.

Here’s the two places where this system is talked about on Adobe’s website. A forum post and the information post linked to above.Adobe search CDS

Where’s the information page linked to from on Adobe’s website? My guess is not very many places, because they should have come up in the search too.

Printers are in on this too

I tried to print United States banknotes from Banknotes.com too. And the job failed. Here’s a New Zealand banknote that printed (and scanned) fine, with one of the United States notes below, which stopped printing halfway through.

Printing money

Here’s the error message in the print dialog.

Banknote print error reading pixels

Error 9707 seems to be specific to the counterfeit deterrence system, but is only described as “reading pixels failed”.

So I guess every time I print something, either the printer or the driver is all: “IS THIS LOOK LIKE MONEY?! NOPE, SEEMS TO BE A GIRAFFE.”

 

What I wonder is what other, potentially less visible and transparent “features” are being included in systems because of pressure or money?

I don’t want manufacturers including these non-features in their products for me and I don’t want my technology making decisions for me.

Posted in New Zealand, Technology, Worldwide

OIA Adventures: Learn From My Mistakes

Posted on by Matt Taylor 4 Comments

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Information

I wouldn’t have picked this post to cause so much drama. But it did.

 

Here’s a couple of tweets I liked:

“Why don’t you research something that is educationally significant” – Like OIA compliance at schools, Ms Kelly? matthewtaylor.co.nz/2012/02/12/oia…

— David Ritchie (@dritchie) February 13, 2012

@timoslimo @MattTaylor Love the way schools insist on knowing who are you and who do you represent. #panicpants

— Bill Blackstone (@SirWB) February 13, 2012

And this post from drone on supplying ‘who are you?’ information:

‘[in response to another post] This, and your other suggestions, are undermining the spirit and intent of the OIA. It is not up to the schools to decide whether they should hand over information based on any criteria of use or who is requesting it.

It’s not about being polite, it’s ensuring that the “norm” does not become something where those providing information under OIA have more wriggle room out of providing it than the law provides.’

Official Information Act guidance for schools

If anyone is curious, this is the only guidance schools have over Official Information Act requests, from the New Zealand School Trustees Association:

‘Official Information Act (OIA) Requests: From time to time boards bear the brunt of broad requests or fishing type expeditions. A recent case in point is a request in the past couple of weeks from the Leader of the Oppositions office to principals for information relating to national standards.  We have had calls from boards and principals about the time and effort these sorts of things create. A reminder of the process when dealing with an OIA request (see very helpful guidelines from the Ombudsmen).

  • you should ensure that the board are aware of any information that is intended to be released from any member of staff
  • you have up to 20 days to respond to the request (in certain cases you can defer for administrative reasons – but this is limited)
  • If the request relates to “work in progress” you may not be able to provide a definitive answer to what is requested and you should identify that is the case.
  • you should ensure that what information the board supplies does not compromised the privacy of any individual(s)
  • you are not required to write an extensive response – often a yes/no, numbers or simply a copy of the material will do
  • sometimes it is not possible to establish the exact information eg if you are asked how much training has been undertaken specifically for one purpose it may be difficult to separate this out from the normal PD undertaken in the school.  There is no requirement to establish new separate databases for such things, particularly where this would require additional administrative costs.’

The 20 day bullet point is interesting because the OIA states: “as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than 20 working days”.

In fact, in 2008 the Office of the Ombudsman released this statement (via), titled ‘Some public servants play games with OIA requests’:

‘Beverley Wakem says the Office has observed an increasing tendency by a few government departments and Ministerial offices to ignore the provisions of the Official Information Act over the timing of responses to requesters.

“While in some cases this was clearly a misunderstanding of their obligations, there is also a regrettable tendency to game the system and delay responses until the complainants’ interest in the matter had passed,” she says.’ [emphasis mine]

Learn from my mistakes

Wording of the emails

1) When sending a request to multiple recipients, test it with a few first. Then make appropriate changes. Including ‘procedures and practices’ in my request might have been a good idea. However most schools got the idea that by policies, I also meant procedures and practices.

The follow-up email

2) Ask for the recipient to tell you when they have received your request. That opens the door for you to send a nice email a few days later to make sure they got your first email if they haven’t replied.

Some schools appreciated the half way follow-up reminder. Others didn’t. Probably because of the Ombudsman line.

3) Let them know that you know the time limit. “I look forward to your response within 20 working days.” Or you can calculate the day.

Helpful links

Image credit: Heath Brandon

Posted in Law, New Zealand