Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/904009
maltatoday SUNDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2017 4 News CALL FOR FULL-TIME LITERACY RESOURCE LEADERS WITHIN THE NATIONAL LITERACY AGENCY Jobsplus: 242/2017 The National Literacy Agency, within the Ministry for Education and Employment, is seeking to recruit Literacy Resource Leaders to work within state schools. The eligibility criteria for this post a The eligibility criteria for this post are: • Applicants must, at the closing date of receipt of applications, have: a qualification in Maltese and/or English MQF level 6, or a recognised degree in Education (Early Years or Primary) at MQF Level 6 or equivalent. • At least 3 years proven relevant work experience in education, preferably as a teacher. Applicants must show that they have knowledge and experience in the area of literacy. •• The Nwar Training Programme Certificate or any other Continuous Professional Development equivalent certificate relavant to literacy education shall be given clear preference. • An ECDL certificate in Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Database and presentation or a recognised appropriate comparable qualification. • A good command of the English and Maltese languages. Candidates Candidates should submit their letter of application, together with a summary of qualifications and experience in a European Curriculum Vitae Format, a copy of their relevant scanned certificates and a recent Police certificate of conduct, by email to john.b.farrugia@gov.mt or by post to Mr John Farrugia, Executive Secretary, National Curriculum Centre, Joseph Abela Scolaro Street, Hamrun, HMR 1304, by not later than 27th November 2017. Applications Applications by post should be sent by registered mail, allowing for sufficient time to ensure delivery by the above deadline. Applications will be acknowledged in writing within seven days. Late applications will not be considered. Further information may be obtained from Mr John Farrugia on 2598 2997 or via email at john.b.farrugia@gov.mt Has been awarded a Master's degree in Library Information and Archive Sciences with Merit from the University of Malta. His research study was funded by the Malta Government Scholarship Scheme (MGSS) Postgraduate Scheme 2014. JOSEPH GRECH Malta requested more data per citizen from Facebook than any other country YANNICK PACE LOCAL authorities made the highest num- ber of requests for user information, per capita, from Facebook in 2016, according to transparency data published by the social media giant. Malta ranked 29th highest in absolute terms. Twice a year, Facebook, along with other service providers like Google, Twitter, Drop- box, Apple, Microsoft and LinkedIn, pub- lishes statistics on the number of requests received by governments and low enforce- ment agencies for user data information. The number of requests made by Malta are comparable to those of significantly larger countries, and social media data appears to have featured more frequently in investiga- tions undertaken by local authorities, with Facebook and Google requests being by far the most common. A relatively high number of requests were also made to Google. Speaking to MaltaToday, Police Cyber- crime Unit head, Timothy Zammit said that "99.9% if not a 100%" of requests made to Fa- cebook and all other service providers came from the cybercrime unit, which investigat- ed 877 cases in 2016. The reports show the number of requests made by different countries and the rate at which those requests were approved, by the respective service provider. In instances where a request does not fulfil the necessary criteria, it is rejected. When processing government requests for user data Facebook says it has "strict pro- cesses in place". In Facebook's own words: "Every request we receive is checked for le- gal sufficiency. We require officials to pro- vide a detailed description of the legal and factual basis for their request, and we push pack when we find legal deficiencies or over- ly broad or vague demands for information. We frequently share only basic subscriber information." Similarly, if asked to restrict content, au- thorities must provide Facebook – which also owns WhatsApp and Messenger – with a legal basis for the request. According to the data, Malta made a total of 319 requests for data in 2016, having had 79 – roughly 25% - rejected outright. While the number of requests for data have almost doubled since 2013, the proportion that are rejected has decreased from 39% to 25%, meaning that while authorities are asking more often, Facebook is also considering those requests to be valid, more often. The United States topped the list of re- quests at 49,868, followed by India and the United Kingdom with 13,613 and 11,835 respectively. Surprisingly, despite its small size, Malta made more requests than coun- tries including South Korea, New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark and Romania. In fact, if one were to take the data and shrink the number of each country's re- quests proportionally, to what they would be like if the country's population was iden- tical to Malta's, Malta's 319 requests would top the list, followed by the United Kingdom with 78. "The reason behind the observation is two-fold," Police Cybercrime Unit head Timothy Zammit told MaltaToday, adding that "99.9% if not 100%" of the requests had been made by the police. "First of all, we look at petty offences as something which might snowball if you don't address it when still small, and you might also end up with a situation where things escalate, or someone decides to take the law into their own hands." Another reason for the high number of re- quests, he said, was to do with the fact that Twitter, Apple, Dropbox, LinkedIn •6 GOOGLE 139 FACEBOOK 319 Requests to social media providers in 2016 by the Maltese government 99.9% of the requests are made by the police, cybercrime unit head Timothy Zammit said