* Posts by Aqua Marina

631 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Dec 2011

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Ex-Facebook manager sues biz after getting 'Zucked out of overtime'

Aqua Marina

@YANC

"Are you saying that every university or startup that doesn't have signed timesheets is breaking the law?"

Judging by the responses so far, I'm saying people are clearly unaware of their rights, are not exercising those rights, and are being walked all over by their employers.

If your employer makes you sign a 48 hour opt out, the law says that is illegal.

If your employer makes you work more than 48 hours a week without opting out and doesn't pay any overtime, that is breaking 2 laws. First is the working time regulations, the second is the minimum wage laws.

If you willingly sign the opt-out, and your employer repeatedly forces you to work for example an hour per day additional work at no pay, the company is breaking minimum wage laws. (The law actually considers the weekly average overtime worked, with this based on all additional hours worked over a 17 week period, then averaged out. This then provides the basis for the minimum wage claim).

If you willingly sign the opt out, and work a 14 hour shift fully paid, and then another the day after, the company is breaking the working time directive by allowing you to exceed your statutory maximum. Opt-outs don't apply.

If you are under 18 and are working a 48 hour week, the company is breaking the law because under 18s cannot work more than 40 hours a week, and they cannot opt out.

In all these cases if the HSE investigate, and the company has not got any documentation that can disprove the claims of the employee, then the company has broken the law by default and will get the appropriate slap on the wrist. Like most corporate crime, if no investigation is made, then no laws have been broken. Employers and HR departments walk a fine line when they mislead employees about their rights, and many of these companies are aware they will get away with it most of the time because people are sheep, the comments in this thread back that up. People don't read the laws that give them rights.

Don't take my word for it, google is your friend. Or click the links I posted above which takes you to the relevant regulations, and pages upon pages of explanations.

*There are some exclusions and additions to these regs like the armed forces etc but these are specific cases that have been written into law for that profession.

Aqua Marina

@Tom38

"and no way out of the room without quitting or signing the piece of paper."

This kind of bullying will go on as long as employees either don't know their rights, or are unwilling to exercise them.

The law clearly states that a company cannot force an opt out, and further also says an employee cannot receive detrimental treatment if they do not opt out. ACAS tribunals typically award a years wages in cases where this has happened and the employee has challenged it. Again it comes back to evidence, the employee is presumed to be telling the truth. I've seen "evidence" produced where the employee kept the form, another where the employee took a photograph of the documents in front of him with his phone and lastly, an employee who called the police to report unlawful detention, because he was told he could not leave the room without signing it. That one resulted in a big payout, and a criminal charge against the owner.

Anyway, the relevant law:- https://www.gov.uk/maximum-weekly-working-hours/weekly-maximum-working-hours-and-opting-out

Aqua Marina

@ David Nash,

"But it's not above 48 hours so doesn't need to be recorded?"

In this instance the minimum wage laws apply. The law states that minimum wage must be paid for all hours worked and that a company has a legal requirement to document all hours worked. Again the HSE will enforce this if a company is found to be avoiding mandatory documentation when it comes to timekeeping, all the employee has to do is report it, anonymously if necessary.

In the case of tribunals, ACAS has always found in favour of the employee if the company fails to provide documented time keeping. The word of an employee regarding hours worked is considered to be truthful if a company has no documentation to say otherwise. In cases where a company has provided documentation, then the employee is expected to provide evidence to the contrary. A selfie taken at the place of work with newspaper front page and a visible clock in the background has successfully been used to challenge company documentation.

This is one of the good things from an employees perspective of being in the EU. It is also likely one of the many employee rights that are likely to be thrown out once we brexit.

Aqua Marina

Re: Oh, skirting correct payment happens everywhere

"There is no law on overtime in the UK".

Incorrect, the Working Time Regulations 1998 have mandatory rules companies must comply with, one of which is the documenting of all hours worked beyond 48 hours a week. This is not optional and even if an employee signs a contract agreeing to work more than 48 hours a week, the company is legally obliged to document all hours worked above 48 hours, paid or unpaid.

All links available from here.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/workingtimedirective.htm

The company as mentioned above has broken the law, and should be reported to the HSE who can take action against companies trying to circumvent the law.

Aqua Marina

Re: Oh, skirting correct payment happens everywhere

Report them, what they are doing is illegal. They *must* keep records. They are not bypassing any laws, they are breaking the law.

Vlad the blockader: Russia's anti-VPN law comes into effect

Aqua Marina

Cue a large game of Whack-a-Mole

"Cue a large game of Whack-a-Mole"

In Soviet Russia, government does not whack mole. Goverment whack you!*

*Sad because it's true!

UK's NHS to pilot 'Airbnb'-style care service in homeowners' spare rooms

Aqua Marina

I have a cunning business plan.

Step 1) Now that we’ve all flown the coop my elderly mother lives in a house that has 4 unused double bedrooms, each with ensuite. That’s £4K per month.

Step 2) Hire a couple of east European workers to come in on a part time shift each during the day to cook and clean. That’ll cost about £1.4 per month.

Step 3) Cornflakes for breakfast and 2 microwave meals a day, that’s £600 per month.

Step 4) ??????

Step 5) Profit!!!!

This makes me £2K per month, I’m providing work, and as a bonus, my old mum has some company!!

What possibly could go wrong!

Microsoft faces Dutch crunch over Windows 10 private data slurp

Aqua Marina

Re: Blaming North Korea?

So what happens when you need to open a very formatted MS Office documents. At some point or other a customer or supplier will send one over that can't be opened very well by OOo or Libre Office and you are back to square one.

Beardy Branson chucks cash at His Muskiness' Hyperloop idea

Aqua Marina

I thought that "The Virgin Ring" would have been a catchier name. It slips off the tongue easily.

Malware again checks into Hyatt's hotels, again checks out months later with victims' credit cards

Aqua Marina

Re: Again?

You can say that again!

Concerns raised about privacy, GDPR as Lords peer over Data Protection Bill

Aqua Marina

Re: What?

Former Employee: "Dear former employer. With reference with my being sacked for starting work late. please provide me with copies of CCTV of the building entrance that shows me entering and leaving the premises on time each day for the past 28 days so that I can produce them at the employment tribunal."

Former employer: "Dear former employee, purely by coincidence our CCTV tapes were accidentally erased 15 minutes after receiving your request, for a period of 8:45am to 9:15 AM each morning for the 28 days in question. We therefore have no evidence to give you."

This is about as simple as it gets. Data is being deleted on purpose, in order to prevent it being requested.

Aqua Marina

Re: Confusing and unworkable

"but on a practical level you'll have to think about keep a copy of the deletion requests since the backup was taken so that you can re-delete it if the backup has to be restored."

This is perhaps one area I've struggled to solve yet practically. Lets say I hold data on a subject that is being retained legally, and does not need to be retained by law. A subject can invoke his right to be forgotten and ask that this data is deleted which of course I do. Now, is it legal to keep a copy of the "forget-me" request, considering that the subject has lawfully been asked to be forgotten. I.e. you've forgotten him for one set of data, but created a new set. Admittedly it's a smaller set of data. I can see the following responses to a subject request.

a) Show me your data on me.

b) We have no data on you, sorry.

or

a) Show me your data on me.

b) All data on you was deleted at your request on the dd/mm/yy

The GDPR does make an exemptions for data being held that is subject to a contract (i.e. car lease agreement) or anything involved in litigation or expected litigation. In these instances there is a lawful reason why you do not delete the data ("dear car lease company, please delete all my data from your lease database" or "dear lawyer, please delete all data from your database you intend to produce in court against me"). So I often wonder if the deletion requests could be argued to fall under this exemption, in that you mayd need to prove in court that data was deleted by subject request and not maliciously against policy. More legal minds than mine will have to answer that question.

Aqua Marina

Re: Confusing and unworkable

"You must delete personal data if you are no longer using it. You must not delete personal data if the subject will ever want to access it."

Basically a organisation must have a clear and published process for the deletion and retention of data that is agreed upon by the subject at contract*. If their policy states that after 12 months they delete the data, and they do so, then the subject who agreed to that policy at contract will have no redress if 24 months later they want to access data that was deleted as per policy. Where things get messy is if an organisation has no defined policy, then responds to access requests with "This was deleted last week, sorry", or an organisation changes the retention period without notice.

*subject to mandatory exemptions and obligations such as personal data held for taxation purposes which must be retained for 7 years, and is exempt from deletion requests by the subject but available upon request.

'There has never been a right to absolute privacy' – US Deputy AG slams 'warrant-proof' crypto

Aqua Marina

Re: Gravity pulls things down.

Pfffft. It’s all maths, science and damned statistics!

Aqua Marina
Trollface

Gravity pulls things down.

No it doesn't, the earth is flat and moving upwards at 32 feet / second squared!

Ex-Harrods IT man cleared of stealing company issued laptop

Aqua Marina

It never ceases to amaze me just how many british commentards that post here have the belief that an employment contract can remove your statutory rights as a UK citizen. Seriously I'm sure you guys must be being walked all over by your employers, or you are school age, and watch a lot of american TV shows.

Let's take it slowly so you understand it.

A company has a policy that says "No personal use or data on company resources, or else *(except in an emergency)." This is perfectly legal, and if an employee breaks the policy they quite rightly and legally are able to be disciplined.

What the company cannot say is "if you break this policy, you are entitled to no privacy and we can do what we want with your data". This would be illegal. The right to privacy is enshrined in law. Any personal information the company comes across, even when a written policy was established forbidding it, is still subject to the Data Protection Act, and next year will be subject to the even more stringent GDPR. A company must by law treat personal information with confidence regardless of policy. Law > Employment Contract.

*already established by case law

Aqua Marina

I've found over the years that when someone is in the process of being fired, asking nicely gets completely ignored and laptops are examined with a fine tooth comb over for evidence of anything that will support the firing.

I think all this will change with the introduction of the GDPR laws next year where privacy trumps everything. A user returning a laptop should also in writing inform the company that the laptop contains personal information, and that by denying him the access to remove the data, they have become the defacto guardian of said data and have a legal responsibility to treat it in complete confidence. Going further to that if my reading of the law is correct, he could further insist that they delete, and provide evidence of the deletion of such data. And they would have to comply.

Aqua Marina

According to FAST software piracy is a crime. Are you happy for your local IT shop to go scouring through your laptop for unlicenced software so they can report it.

I'll clarify my point. I asked if the shop called Harrods or if they called the police. I would guess that most likely they called Harrods. If this is what they did, then this is a huge breach of privacy, and also illegal.

Aqua Marina

A complete waste of time and tax-payers money then.

The number of people I've had over the years that have wanted me to remove their personal stuff from company owned laptops before they've handed them back. Now because of an over zealous prosecutor, it's established as being illegal. The shop that er, shopped him deserves to be social media shamed. Did they contact the police, or contact Harrods first?

The URL of sandwich: Microsoft Office blogs redirect snafu foils users

Aqua Marina

Re: Nowhere near as bad as the SNAFU with NT4

Or buy PC Pro! Back then the cover CD shipped with all the major patches and service packs. There wasn't a tech who didn't have the current months CD in his tool case. Then around the turn of the century MS put a stop to that.

A similar thing happened with XP. A fresh XP installation with an original CD left you with a machine that wouldn't accept windows updates, the built-in IE was too out of date. You had to manually install the service pack and latest version of IE before the windows update would start to work.

Open World? More like closed world: Women sue Oracle for 'paying them less' than blokes

Aqua Marina

Re: Note to plaintiffs

I've always held the belief that you get what you negotiate. If you end up earning twice as much as the guy or gal sat next to you because of this, then you've earned it and deserve it. Negotiation is just an important skill set in business as any other. If you're happy to settle for a lower amount, then you are getting what you are worth.

UK data watchdog swots automated marketing call pest with £260k fine

Aqua Marina

Re: Limited liability

In this instance the ICO could lodge an appeal to block the voluntary winding up on the basis that money is owed. At that point if this is successful then the only thing that Harkin could do is call in the receivers, wheich essentially puts him under investigation, and forbids him from starting up another company. Hopefully he's left it to late to try to get his company struck off and the ICO can get it blocked.

ICO whacks Welsh biz with £350k fine for 150 million nuisance calls

Aqua Marina

@FFS. Does anyone read the full article these days?

People read the article, but you don't read the comments.

The article simply says "introduce a new law to allow the ICO to penalise a company’s directors for their firm’s nuisance calls". Notice the phrase "ICO to penalise a company's directors".

The commentard stated "The law needs to change so they can't just dissolve when it suits them and also the directors should be personally made responsible for CCJs and fines." The commentard is asking that directors are made responsible for ALL fines and CCJs. Not just the ones from the ICO.

Equifax UK admits: 400,000 Brits caught up in mega-breach

Aqua Marina

Re: Say what?

"This was due to a process failure, corrected in 2016, which led to a limited amount of UK data being stored in the US between 2011 and 2016."

I wonder if this oversight was reported to the ICO at the time, or if it was quietly swept under the rug and hoped that would be the end of it.

HSBC biz banking crypto: The case of the vanishing green padlock and... what domain are we on again?

Aqua Marina

"where, in my experience, the employees are hard working but are completely unable to think for themselves"

I spent about 6 months trying to open an account with them. The account kept getting declined repeatedly for the same ludicrous reason. My passport had my middle name on it, my bills didn't. It wasn't possible to get my middle name on the bills because it would have taken me over the maximum character limit. They wouldn't accept initials either. It was ridiculous, the bank manager kept trying to push it through, but a week later each time I got an automated letter back saying my proof of ID didn't match. After 6 months I went to Barclays. They only looked at my passport to confirm my ID, account was open same day.

US government: We can jail you indefinitely for not decrypting your data

Aqua Marina

At the risk of being downvoted a million times again, I'll point out that Section 53 of RIPA puts the onus on the prosecution to demonstrate that the accused has or knows passwords to hand over. There is a myth on The Register comments that prosecutors can repeat the request over and over, each time sending the guilty party to prison for 2 years at a time. This simply isn't true, and to date has never happened or even been attempted. It's very possible that the prosecution could not prove their claim beyond a reasonable doubt. Anyhow, here is the exact wording of the law below.

Section 53 Failure to comply with a notice.

3 For the purposes of this section a person shall be taken to have shown that he was not in possession of a key to protected information at a particular time if—

....

(b)the contrary is not proved beyond a reasonable doubt.

UK.gov is hiring IT bods with skills in ... Windows Vista?!

Aqua Marina

Re: What?

Exactly, Vista with the service packs, and a few registry changes disabling the buggy caching and buggy memory management was Windows 7, at least it ran as reliably right up until I was forced not to use Vista by Microsoft. We had Vista and 7 running reliably side by side for years.

Apple removes VPN apps in China as Russia's Putin puts in the boot with VPN banlaw

Aqua Marina

Re: How far will this go ???

"So what is next, banning of such texts"

In the U.K. It's been illegal for a couple of decades now to publish instructions on how to circumvent many of our computer misuse laws. Yes you read that right, it's illegal to inform people how not to break the law, if the objective was originally to break the law.

FUKE NEWS: Robot snaps inside drowned Fukushima nuke plant

Aqua Marina

I thought the published opinion of Fukushima on el-reg was "Nothing to see here, move along". Did something happen to change that view?

Fake Newspaper steals Reg design to spruik storage upstart

Aqua Marina

Sprechende designer?

"you need someone with technical expertise who speaks enough "design" to communicate with the designer "

Something I've clearly never learned looking at the years I've spent banging my head against the wall with designers who do not understand the concept of DPI. A typical example:-

Designer: I need all my photography images to be supplied at 300 DPI.

Me: What resolution?

Designer: 300 DPI......

Me: 6" x 4" at 300 DPI, 10" x 6" at 300 DPI, A1 at 300 DPI?

Designer: Look, they just need to be 300DPI then they are good enough to print out.

Me: You've saved 1TB of JPGs twice and filled up the entire NAS, one lot at 96DPI and the other at 300 DPI, but they are both just 3800 x 2100 images.

Designer: That's because the ones at 96DPI are for use on the website, the 300 DPI are to be printed.

Me: But they're identical, you only need one set.

Designer: No, they're different resolutions, those are the same resolution as your monitor, those as your printer.....

And many many more....

The AA's copped to credit data blurt, but what about car-crash incident response?

Aqua Marina

Re: Electoral register

The clue was in the sentence "contains just as much personally identifiable data".

E.g. Name, address, nationality, DOB, national insurance number, telephone number, previous addresses, email address and signature. Everything your average identity thief needs.

The last 4 digits of a credit card isn't particularly personally identifiable data.

Aqua Marina

Electoral register

The electoral register contains just as much personally identifiable data as this leak, but I'd be interested to know how many reg pro-privacy-commenters have actually followed the steps to remove themselves from it.

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/electoral-register/

If you take the steps to remove yourself from the open register now, all subsequent years registrations will still remain published and in third party hands, so you're not really removing yourself from it, just not keeping it up to date. Unless you move house to a different area, in which case you'll be automatically opted back in, until you notice and opt out.

AES-256 keys sniffed in seconds using €200 of kit a few inches away

Aqua Marina

Try not to read this in a Liam Neeson voice.

I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. What I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you post a link to a clickbait article, I will look for you, I will find you, and you won't believe what happens next!

You wait ages for a sun, then two come along at once: All stars have twins, say astroboffins

Aqua Marina

Nibiru!

Facebook tried teaching bots art of negotiation – so the AI learned to lie

Aqua Marina

Please tell me more, how do you feel about the hats?

Hand in your notice – by 2022 there'll be 350,000 cybersecurity vacancies

Aqua Marina

"...are unwilling to hire less experienced candidates"

I remember in 2002 being told I was unsuitable for a job, because I didn't have 5 years experience in Windows 2000.

London City airport swaps control tower for digital cameras

Aqua Marina

Re: Optional

Cockpits eye view landing video here. Looks amazing, lands to a standstill in half the runway, then performs a u-turn!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-land-plane-london-city-8610007

Britain shouldn't turn its back on EU drone regs, warns aerospace boffin

Aqua Marina

Re: Here be snowflakes...

"Because the rules do not tell you what you can do..."

I was under the impression that this is how exactly those EU countries still following Napoleonic law work.

European Napoleonic law = everything is forbidden apart from that enshrined in law.

British law = everything is legal, apart from that which is forbidden by law.

Robot lands a 737 by hand, on a dare from DARPA

Aqua Marina
Black Helicopters

Could anyone enlighten me why the plane has a yoke and a joystick? I would have thought it was one or t'other?

Android O-mg. Google won't kill screen hijack nasties on Android 6, 7 until the summer

Aqua Marina

I'm seeing something like this regularly on my iphone in Safari. A pop up fills the window, and cannot be shut down unless I click the button being offerred that will "let me speak to a microsoft technician who will remove the malware from my PC". The image seems to be perfectly sized so that I cannot scroll up or down to get to the control bars at the top or bottom. If I kill safari, then once I start it back up, the last page viewed is shown, and blam, I'm back to the same screen. To get around it I have to kill safari, then go into the settings and erase the safari history.

Ewe, get a womb! Docs grow baby lambs in shrink-wrap plastic bags

Aqua Marina
Coat

Re: Is that photo a photoshop job?

That gave me such a groan I feel obliged to grab your coat off you, and leave myself :)

Shooting org demands answers from Met Police over gun owner blab

Aqua Marina

Let them know they screwed up (and possibly broke the law) on their Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/SWTechnology

Tweet them too https://twitter.com/smartwaternews

Oh snap! UK Prime Minister Theresa May calls June election

Aqua Marina

Re: Dodgy ads!

I read that (and still do) as "Dodgy ADSL".

I thought "Oh finally an IT angle to a political thread" :)

NASA agent faces heat for 'degrading' moon rock sting during which grandmother wet herself

Aqua Marina
Trollface

Time to voice your disapproval...

...on their facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/NASA/

'Clearance sale' shows Apple's iPad is over. It's done

Aqua Marina

Re: Education PC seller says Apple is no good in that market

"Aye, i know at least one secondary school where Ipads are actually mandatory, with various finance options"

I was furious when my lads school sent home a letter stating all children would need an iPad in the following term. They had an offering for the latest and greatest with finance, and a disclaimer stating that lesser models might not be capable of running the schools software.

They were effectively painting a target on the backs of all the kids saying "mug me". Every kid in town now walks to and from school with a grands worth of iPad waiting for the bag snatchers.

Jim Kubicek Cumming Forsythe Chamber of Commerce

Aqua Marina
Megaphone

Jim Kubicek Cumming Forsythe Chamber of Commerce

Well, after a month of silence and no indictment, it looks like the local fuzz have decided that character assassination is in order. A detective who says he rarely comments on investigations, comments enough to fill this article. Surely the appropriate place for his comments would be court?

http://mspmentor.net/managed-services/msp-denies-destroying-office-365-data-nonpayment-flap#comment-170101

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