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Any change in life–whether it be a graduation, a new job, or a move, always comes with a hefty to do list. TPO Mobile wants to help make that to do list a little shorter–by helping you find the perfect cell phone plan. And not only will TPO Mobile help you save some money with a reasonably priced and reliable phone plan, it will also help you check off one other thing on that to do list: making sure you set aside some money for charity.

TPO–which stands for “The People’s Operator”–gives 10 percent of your bill to a cause you care about, at no additional cost to you. It’s perfect for someone transitioning from their family’s plan to their own, or anyone looking to switch carriers and make a positive impact on the world at the same time. So, if you’re looking to save some dough and make a difference, check out five reasons you should consider a TPO Mobile prepaid plan:

Lots of Choices–For Both Plans and Causes

When you step away from your old phone plan, you have a world of options in front of you. You don’t want to restrict yourself, you want choices. TPO offers those choices for both its plans and the causes that your 10 percent can go to benefit.

TPO offers nine distinct prepaid cell phone plans, with a range of data, talk, and text limits. TPO also offers tablet plans, to ensure that you’re connected from all your devices.

TPO customers have directed funds to thousands of causes, including the ASPCA, Pencils of Promise, Grassroots Soccer, Girls on the Run, UNHCR, Planet Water, and New York Restoration Project. When you sign up with a TPO plan, you get access to the cause partner database, and get to choose the one that you connect with. Then, 10 percent of your bill is automatically donated to that cause partner.

Not sure what cause you want to support? TPO sometimes offers the ability to split your money between multiple causes. TPO has just launched the Power2Students pack, allowing you to split your money between three amazing education charities. Join today and split your 10 percent between Pencils of Promise, Urban Dove, and Scholarship America.

Having a hard time picking a cause? Take our quiz to see which organization is the best fit for you!

It Makes Giving a Good Habit From the Start

It’s easy to think to yourself: “I’ll give to charity when I have a larger paycheck, or when I’m more settled down.” But if you make a habit of giving when you’re young, it’s more likely that you’ll donate throughout your life. If that’s important to you, it may be time to start now. And what easier way to do so than making giving part of a bill you have to pay anyway?

There’s also a ripple effect when it comes to charitable giving, particularly for millennials. Your 10 percent is going to charity courtesy of TPO, but it probably won’t stop there. Millennials are significantly more likely to be influenced by their peers than other age groups when it comes to giving. And that’s a good thing, because with TPO Mobile…

….Friend and Family Referral Rewards Help You Rack up the Savings

If you refer a friend or family member, you can choose between a $10 credit to your account, or $5 in cash. It’s as easy as that. And of course, the more people you get to use TPO’s services, the more money ends up going to your favorite charities. It’s a total win-win.

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Great Value Rates

TPO offers service on the fastest nationwide 4G LTE network, and covers about 97 percent of the American population. You get to use whatever phone you choose, as long as you can insert a TPO SIM card. And you can keep the number you’ve always had–you won’t have to go through the pain of updating everyone with your new number. In today’s financial climate, when so many of us are saddled with massive amounts of student loan debt and less relative income when compared to our parents’ generation, it makes a lot of sense (and cents) to shop around for the best deal.

Currently TPO is offering up to 35 percent off per month for the first three months on selected prepaid plans, and a free SIM card.

Awesome Customer Service

Listen–we’ve all been stuck on the phone with a service provider, pressing one for more options, and attempting to finally speak to a human. You won’t have to worry about that with TPO. TPO has a team standing by ready to help seven days a week, including the weekends, so you won’t miss a minute of your life. Here’s what a couple of millennial TPO customers had to say about their experiences. Taylor Cash said:

I’m not very tech-savvy for a millennial. I wanted more data but I wanted to upgrade my plan too, and was confused about how it all worked. Everyone I have talked to was very kind and helpful and took the time to explain how it worked to me. I think it’s more personal—I didn’t ever feel like they were ‘reading from a script’ without really knowing the answer. I feel like they knew exactly what I was asking and how to solve it and explain it to me.

And Evan Taylor pointed out the importance of a personal touch:

The mere fact that they aren’t one of the telecom giants that are impossibly infuriating to deal with is huge. Also, they seem to care about social causes and community. It’s important that someone out there is providing affordable service and not taking advantage of people with obscure contracts.

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As millennials, we place a high priority on charitable giving. We’re more likely to want to work for companies that give back to the community; as a group we give to charity at high rates; and we love talking about the charities we care about, and getting other people to give too. TPO understands that. Jimmy Wales–also the founder of Wikipedia–is the executive chairman of TPO Mobile. He was inspired to join the team because of its emphasis on those very values that millennials hold near and dear to their hearts. He explained:

Millennials are increasingly supporting causes based on personal connection–that’s what the studies are showing. TPO Mobile provides millennials a way to keep in touch with their friends and family whilst making a positive change. This empowers them to drive their own change, and encourages more and more companies to let customers support causes they care about with everyday technology. People want to give back, so why not give them a way to do it?

And that’s exactly what makes TPO such a good fit for millennials. The company was founded with those ideals in mind–that there’s a way to use business for good. Check out TPO to learn more.

TPO Mobile

TPO Mobile was founded on the idea that mobile could be used to change lives for the better. Customers with TPO not only get great value prepaid plans, a high quality mobile service, and great customer service – they can also direct 10 percent of their monthly bill to the cause of their choice, at no extra cost to them. TPO launched in the U.K. in 2012 and expanded to the U.S. in 2015. Since its U.K. launch, TPO customers have directed funds to hundreds of causes including The Trussell Trust, Emerge Poverty Free, and the British Heart Foundation. In the U.S., TPO has also partnered with a range of great causes. Furthermore, TPO has developed the TPO Community, an online community to expand the global network of mobile phone customers who share in the common belief of supporting causes and TPO Giving, a not-for-profit donation platform. Connect with TPO at www.facebook.com/tpous and @TPOus, or find out more at www.tpo.com TPO Mobile is a partner of Law Street Creative. The opinions expressed in this author’s articles do not necessarily reflect the views of Law Street.

The post New Career, New Phone, New Cause: 5 Reasons to Check out TPO Mobile appeared first on Law Street.

Does privacy even exist in the digital world these days? Many argue no, as more and more companies use elaborate software to track their customers’ precise locations, spending habits, facial features, and shopping preferences. Uber is just the latest company to come under fire for going “big brother” on its customers.

Uber recently announced a plan to track customers through the app, even if the user shuts it off, deletes it, and even turns off the GPS function. Last Monday, a formal complaint was filed against Uber by the nonprofit research group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Washington, DC. This was done in an effort to get the agency to prohibit the taxi-service company from instituting these new changes.

Uber will soon be able to track your location even if you exit the app and have GPS turned off http://t.co/RZUN2EaMej pic.twitter.com/StttNhjVqr

— Business Insider (@businessinsider) June 23, 2015

These new updates are expected to take effect around July 15th, a decision that Uber announced on May 28th, although not without some serious uproar.

If you are an Uber user, your every move will soon be able to be tracked; this revelation has left many customers on edge. What’s most appalling about this update is that it will let the company trace not only the whereabouts of its customers, but also everywhere that they’ve ever traveled while they’ve had the app on their phones. This is a major issue that people have with this update since the company will retain all the past location data of its consumers, with no indication when this information will be deleted, if ever.

Despite the backlash over this new policy, Uber stated that there is no support for these allegations made by EPIC. It claims that these changes in data collection are being done solely to help Uber optimize its services so that it can improve customer satisfaction. The company believes that it is completely necessary to track its customers’ every move in order to provide optimal services with shorter wait times. Uber does not see any problems with this new update, nor any truth in the many complaints against it. It also claims that its customers’ privacy is of its utmost concern.

Uber has a reputation for breaching the privacy of its customers, as this is not the first time that the app has been criticized by the public. It has encountered numerous lawsuits lately, such as when it was accused of tracking a customer without first receiving consent, cheating customers, and failing to meet local regulations in the United States.

Despite there being some extreme opposition to this change in the privacy policy of the app, there are some people who see the benefits of it. Some state that since this update has the potential to drastically change a customer’s experience so it is worth the hassle. This update would likely help Uber to figure out where most of its customers are so it can concentrate drivers in the most popular areas.

Uber remains one of the growing giants of the tech industry, it has been valued at $40 billion even though it was created only six years ago, and it continues to grow at absurd rates. For a company that is still so new, it is imperative for it to maintain its following and to keep the public’s interest. It currently provides millions of trips a day for users across the globe, and so the last thing Uber wants to do is upset its loyal customers.

Infringing on people’s privacy can be quite daunting, especially for those who have secrets to hide. Americans today are very conscious of their security, and so the thought of a company having access to your exact location at all times can seem frightening. Uber claims that it will give all customers the option of whether or not to report their location data back to the company, however, this choice will not be possible to disable on all phones.

Not only will this new update track customers’ locations, but it will also access users’ contact lists upon approval. Uber is doing this so that it can send promotions to riders’ friends and family, and to also implement its improved “split fare” feature. Communicating with a person’s contacts in such a manner might even be breaking a federal law, which states that a company can’t call or text people without first getting written permission.

It seems that Uber tried to keep the implications of this new update under the radar, although EPIC is not about to let it slide for violating its customers’ fundamental rights to privacy. The group is outraged at this new policy change, as it stated that it finds it to be a threat to people’s overall safety and privacy rights, it could create a substantial risk of harm for customers, and that it would “constitute an unfair and deceptive trade practice.”

Don’t people have the right to feel secure within their own devices? In an age where virtually anything can be found or performed online, people want to feel like their privacy is always being protected. There is currently no word as to whether the FTC will investigate the claims made by EPIC, although it might have to as this story continues to develop and gain publicity.

Toni Keddell

Toni Keddell is a member of the University of Maryland Class of 2017 and a Law Street Media Fellow for the Summer of 2015. Contact Toni at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Uber Users: Beware of Tracking Software appeared first on Law Street.

Hey y’all!

Remember the days when you felt safe at school? Yeah. I don’t either. Ever since the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999 there has been a sense of uneasiness that goes along with walking into a school. I was only in eighth grade when Columbine occurred but it seems to me that event was a catalyst for even more shootings at schools. I always took it from the perspective as a student and not ever thinking about the teachers. They are adults, they will know what to do to keep us out of harm’s way. Unfortunately it is part of their job. I may not have always liked my teachers but I always respected them.

Respect for teachers has gone out the window. Of course, I could make a bad joke about all of the female teachers who have been arrested for praying on students for sexual purposes and the lack of respect these women have for themselves and their profession, but I won’t. What is frightening now is that teachers are being attacked by students. Physically attacked by students for the dumbest reasons.

Last week a New Jersey student attacked a teacher. No, I’m sorry this kid did not just attack a teacher, he body slammed the teacher to the floor and it was all caught on video by another student. I wouldn’t say it was a full on, aggressive body slam but this kid picked up the teacher and put him on the ground. In the video you can also hear a faint smack which leads me to believe that the student hit the teacher.

The reason for the assault? The teacher confiscated the student’s phone during class. Is a cell phone that important that you want to get yourself into a situation where you physically harm a teacher? I think not. The teacher is a 62-year-old man just trying to do his job. The student is a 16-year-old freshman who has been suspended from school and was arrested and charged with third-degree aggravated assault.

John F. Kennedy High School in Patterson, New Jersey is where the assault took place. The school district filed a formal complaint against the student and suspended him. The Patterson Police Department arrested and charged the student with assault.

I don’t blame the physics teacher for taking away a student’s cell phone. I will ask again, was losing your phone for the length of a class period worth harming a teacher? I still don’t think so. The lack of respect that kids have for authority these days is insane.

I blame parents. Respect starts at home, keeping your hands to yourself starts at home. I strongly believe that the parents should be punished for their child’s bad behavior as well until they hit the age of 18.

Teachers walk into classrooms every day with the mission of guiding young minds, filling them with knowledge to make themselves and society a better place. Teachers have a job to do, they shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not they are going to have to physically defend themselves from their students. Many people have commented that they were surprised that the teacher in this tragic assault did not defend himself. I think he made the right decision; had he tried to defend himself he very well could have lost his job, but also could have been put into a more dangerous situation. The teacher remained as calm as possible while making sure that he kept some composure and held his body stiff so as not to do any more bodily harm.

I applaud this teacher for doing his job and not allowing some 16-year-old punk to destroy his life. Once that teacher lays a hand, in self defense or otherwise, he would have to live with those consequences for the rest of his life. Just like this 16-year-old kid will.

Allison Dawson

Allison Dawson was born in Germany and raised in Mississippi and Texas. A graduate of Texas Tech University and Arizona State University, she’s currently dedicating her life to studying for the LSAT. Twitter junkie. Conservative. Get in touch with Allison at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post NJ Student Assault on Teacher Caught on Tape appeared first on Law Street.

With the widespread use of cell phones, it has become easier and easier to capture pictures of everyday life. Unfortunately, that also means that it has become easier to take photos of unsuspecting and unwilling subjects for fetishistic purposes. Doing so is called “voyeur photography”, and one popular use is referred to as “upskirting.” Upskirting is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, taking a photo up a woman’s skirt, usually while she is walking up a set of stairs or on an escalator. Over the past few years, there have been a handful of men found committing such behavior, such as Christopher Hunt Cleveland, who was arrested this September for taking approximately 4,500 upskirt photos on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Convictions can result in jail time and registration as a sex-offender.

In 2010, a Massachusetts man by the name of Michael Robertson was arrested for trying to take upskirt pictures on the T (the subway system in Boston).  He was charged with two counts of photographing a nude or partially nude person without her knowledge. Mr. Robertson’s case is now in front of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and he and his lawyer, Michelle Menken, are arguing that it his constitutional right as protected by the First Amendment to take these pictures. Furthermore, they are arguing that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy afforded to women who are in public dressed in such as a manner that would allow upskirting to be possible.

Upskirting is a behavior that is made possible by camera phone technology, and therefore is relatively new. Just nine years ago, in 2004, Congress passed the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act. A summary of the law provided by the Library of Congress states:

Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit knowingly videotaping, photographing, filming, recording by any means, or broadcasting an image of a private area of an individual, without that individual’s consent, under circumstances in which that individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy. (Defines a “private area” as the naked or undergarment clad genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or female breast of an individual.) Makes such prohibition inapplicable to lawful law enforcement, correctional, or intelligence activity.

Various states also have instituted their own voyeurism laws. For example, in the state of Massachusetts, a law enacted in 2004 states essentially the same thing as the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act, but also outlines appropriate punishments. Any laws along this line are usually referred to colloquially as “Peeping Tom Laws.” Menken has argued that regardless of what these laws state, they simply do not apply in this case, pointing out that, “Peeping Tom laws protect women and men from being photographed in dressing rooms and bathrooms who are nude or partially nude. However, the way the law is written right now, it does not protect clothed people in public areas.” She has also taken issue with the characterization of these women as “partially nude”, stating that every picture that Robertson took showed private parts that were covered by underwear. She said, “women in the photographs can not be considered partially nude because their underwear covered everything and no private parts could be seen in the pictures taken.”

It is pretty clear that both the state in which Robertson resides as well as the United States have created laws that attempt to prevent behavior such as upskirting. But whether or not these laws violate Robertson’s First Amendment rights will be decided by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. I would like to imagine that women who wear skirts and climb stairs do not have a reasonable expectation that their private parts may be photographed, but it is important to remember that similar arguments have been up held before—in 2008, charges were dropped under Oklahoma Peeping Tom laws against a man who upskirted a 16-year-old girl in a Super Target. It was determined that she did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in that public location. How Robertson’s case fares may have an important effect on similar laws across many states, and at the federal level.

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Anneliese Mahoney (@AMahoney8672) is Lead Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

Featured image courtesy of [Corey Seeman via Flickr]

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Peeping Toms, Cellphones, and Skirts appeared first on Law Street.